


Of Piercings and Sweaters

by Kangarooblu



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Anxiety Disorder, Crying, Fluff, M/M, Slight Angst?, hopefully you'll like noya with piercings, i like noya with piercings, lots of awkward, maybe a little, oh also tanaka with tattoos, tattoo parlor and flower shop AND bookstore, who likes noya with piercings?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-22
Packaged: 2018-03-13 17:12:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 20,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3389720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kangarooblu/pseuds/Kangarooblu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Noya definitely doesn't have a crush on the guy who wears horrific sweaters and works at the bookstore across the street. Not even when he sees his deep brown eyes and his beautiful smile. Nope. He definitely doesn't have a thing for him at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm trying out this idea I've had for a little bit, since I wanted to contribute to the beauty of this community. Daichi owns a tattoo parlor next to Suga's flower shop, and maybe if I have time I'll elaborate on this au, hopefully I'll be able to! I don't know how to run bookstores or tattoo parlors or flower shops so please have mercy on me. Also I apologize in advance for any mistakes in spelling or grammar! I hope you find twenty, no, thirty bucks on the ground somewhere!

Nishinoya whined. It was a high-pitched sound from the back of his throat that vaguely sounded like a sick puppy. His hands were above his head and pressed into a cold window, and with his whine he pressed them harder against the glass. He glanced at the analog clock to his right.

Noya then realized that he couldn’t read analog clocks. He glanced up at his left wrist to only then remember his digital watch had broken two months ago. He let out an even louder, higher-pitched whine.

“It’s one-thirty, Noya.” Daichi said, somehow able to know what Noya wanted without even having to look at him, as Daichi was currently preoccupied with sketching out a few designs to put on display once he was finished.

“Thanks Daichi.” he mumbled, banging his head against the glass window once with a large thunk.

“...What time is it now?”

“Two minutes since the last time you asked.” This time Kageyama replied, clicking the pen in his hand so fast and holding it so tight it was a wonder the pen didn’t explode right there in his hand.

“So that’s….”

“One-thirty-two, you imbecile.”

“Don’t call your elder an imbecile!”

“You’re one year older than me, you are not my elder.”

“Isn’t he technically our elder?” All heads turned to Yamaguchi (well really only two since Daichi was still at work sketching and Tanaka was arguing silently with a mop) who paused in his sweeping and was now trying to maintain eye contact with two people at once.

“Yamaguchi, I’m bumping you up to favorite kohai.” Noya said with a giant grin and a thumbs up. Though the thumbs up didn’t really work, his hand was still up on the glass of the window and he didn’t take it down to flash his thumb at his new favorite kohai so it’s fairly plausible that Yamaguchi didn’t see it at all.

Kageyama just scoffed and glared the other way.

Yamaguchi looked really happy. Then it dawned on him that he wasn’t already the favorite kohai in the first place. Oh. He went back to sweeping.

Silence engulfed the approximate area of the five boys, er, men, with everyone going about their own business. And by that I mean three people doing actual work, one about to throw down with a mop, and another wistfully staring out the window at the bookshop across the street.

“What time is it again?”

No one replied to the poor, poor spikey headed boy.

“I said, what time is it?”

This time he met the silence with another whine. And then another. And another. And finally he whined so loud that Tsukishima from the neighboring flower shop came marching in, anger in his eyes.

“Will you shut up for _ten_ goddamned seconds, some people _actually have_ customers and are trying to focus.”

“Maybe you could focus if you actually had your glasses on.” Noya mumbled, resting his head back against the window with a small thud. He had a point though, currently Tsukishima’s glasses were hanging on his bright yellow apron, instead on his face, where they should be. He sent a glare both to Nishinoya and Kageyama (just ‘cause he could).

“Yeah, now get back to your precious little customers at your cute lil flower shop already.” Tanaka said in a mocking, slightly babyish, tone.

Tsukishima just rolled his eyes.

“At least we have customers, _unlike some places_.”

Now this time every head turned to him, including Daichi.

“What did you say, you little punk?!”

Which was funny because it was Tanaka who said that and Tsukishima was clearly much taller than him.

“You wanna go! I bet you wanna go! Put ‘em up! Put ‘em up!” Tanaka took a fist full of sunny yellow apron and pulled his face into a disturbing mix of terror and terrifying, as only Tanaka can do. Tsukishima actually looked like he was going to hit him, when Suga, bright apron and all, came flying in through the door.

Again, everyone paused. Time stopped. They all knew that Suga could be the most scary of them all when he was worked up. But all he did was merely glance at the scene in front of him.

“Oh, Daichi are those some new designs you’re working on?”

Time slowly started up again, with new glances being thrown in every direction.

Tanaka and Tsukishima both muttered vulgar comments at each other, Suga was trying to ignore the situation entirely by making pleasant conversation with Daichi, Daichi was grateful, Yamaguchi was trying to calm Tsuki down, Kageyama looked like he really didn’t want to be there, and Noya was still staring out the window, entire body pressed against the now warm glass. After approximately fifty-six seconds of the uncomfortable, mostly quiet atmosphere, Noya opened his mouth, drew in a deep breath, and was about to let out another one of his famous, you guessed it, whines, when a flash of orange and yellow interrupted him.

“Suga-san! There’s this guy trying to buy flowers, but he didn’t know what kind he wanted, and even after I showed him all the flowers we had he still didn’t know what to get and he’s stuttering a lot and is really nervous and big and tall and Ennoshita thinks he’s going to steal something, which is stupid because who steals from a flower shop? But anyway he wanted me to come get you so I did and wow it’s really tense in here.”

Everyone was now staring at Hinata. He blinked a couple of times.

“What? Did you not hear me? I can say it again-” Kageyama jumped up and clamped a hand over the redheads mouth.

“Don’t you dare repeat all that!” He hissed. Hinata said something that was garbled by the hand in front of him and, once he realized no one could understand him because of that hand, he licked it. To which Kageyama pulled away with a shout, and looked ready to commit murder.

That was the start of it all.

Tsukishima made a comment on how stupid they looked, both boys jumping to defend their pride (“Kageyama looks stupider than me!” “No, you look more stupid, you idiot!).

Tanaka felt it was his place to protect his underclassman by taking on the underclassman who made fun of them. But Yamaguchi was in front of Tsukishima, trying to both hold back laughter and scold him, and received the punch instead. It only hit his shoulder, not even all that hard, but when he flinched and looked back at Tanaka, fist still in the air, guilty as charged, all Yamaguchi had to do was mutter, “Ow,” and Tanaka was a dead man.

Yamaguchi muttered, “Ow.”

Tanaka was dead meat.

Except Tsukishima never put on his glasses and when he made a move, he slid where Tanaka was previously mopping, right onto his butt.

“I’m going to kill you!” He lunged for the poor dead piece of meat that was Tanaka from his position on the floor.

Yamaguchi was still trying to calm him down, Tanaka ran for his life, Hinata and Kageyama were still fighting, Suga had a death grip on Daichi’s chair, Daichi himself looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel, and Nishinoya was still looking out the goddamned window.

Noya finally let the whine he had been holding in out into the mix of chaos going on behind him, and that was the last straw.

“EVERYBODY SHUT UP!”

Everyone presently stopped (again) and looked up in fear of Daichi’s wrath.

All of a sudden, to try and prevent one more person who wanted to kill him, Tanaka piped up, “None of this would have ever happened if Noya wasn’t head over heels, all lovey-dovey over some garbage-thug-hippie-drug-dealer who works across the street!”

And because fate is a pain in the ass, that garbage-thug-hippie-drug-dealer who works across the street just so happened to be exiting the flower shop and was walking past the tattoo parlor when he stopped to take in the scene before him.

It didn’t help that Noya was staring right at him, red as a beet.

He blinked a couple of times, Noya blinked back at him.

He managed to look down, dart his eyes every which way nervously, and walked, with some struggle, back up the street.

Noya hung his head.

“...Someone please kill me already.”


	2. Chapter 2

_Two months earlier_

 

Another quiet day presented itself at Karasuno’s local tattoo parlor. Everyone that knew of the place called it Karasuno’s tattoo parlor, because it really didn’t have a name _and_ was the only tattoo parlor in town. There was a time when all the staff members got together to think out something catchy or perhaps punny to call the place, but all the ink based puns were so terrible that everyone agreed to leave well enough alone and keep their no-name status.

The name didn’t really matter anyway, it was the staff and the clientele that mattered, and, frankly, both were pretty weird.

But whatever, pretty much everyone knew that.

 _Pretty much_ being the keyword, because on this fateful day there was a new shop opening up across the street, and that meant new people who definitely _weren’t_ going to be scared by their new neighbors, right?

\----------------------------------------------

"What do you think’s going on with all those boxes?” Tanaka, the man with both arms covered in tattoos that went down to his knuckles, leaned in close to the store front windows, inked up arms crossed, a skeptical look to his face. Nishinoya joined him in staring skeptically out the window.

“Hm,” Noya put a hand under his chin in thought, “Maybe we should investigate!”

The two leaned even closer and narrowed their eyes in sync.

“Well, there are a lot of boxes that have books in them…”

“Yeah, yeah, good start Noya.”

“And those boxes with books are labeled ‘books’,”

“Hey, Noya, maybe it’s a petshop?”

Nishinoya narrowed his eyes even more,“Yeah....maybe.”

“Quiet down, I’m concentrating.” Daichi called, as he was currently working on a burly biker mans arm. He sighed.

“You two really are hopeless, it’s a bookstore.”

A metaphorical light bulb appeared over the heads of the two idiots.

“I, um, I knew that! I was just, uh, saying pet stop to see if you played along!”

“Noya! That's a lie and you know it! You’re the one who mentioned pet shops!”  
  
“Yeah, well, we do need a pet shop around here.”

“You just want to try raising a pet fish again, don’t you?”  
  
“Hey, that last one lived for almost an entire week!”

“It was five days!”  
  
“That’s five days of it’s life well spent!”

“Noya, you _killed_ a beta fish in five days!”

“Well actually, it was four.”  
  
“ _Four?_ ”

“Yeah, it kind of died on the fourth day, and it took me awhile to arrange the fishy funeral-”

“Oh yeah I remember that, you invited everyone to come show up and watch you flush your fish down the toilet. Didn’t you wear a suit?”   
  
Nishinoya huffed, “It was a formal occasion, you wore a suit too!”  
  
“Yeah because I’m a good friend and actually showed up to your fishes funeral!”   
  
“You really are a great pal!”  
  
“Yeah I know!”   
  
Though they were praising each other, their voices sounded almost angry, and they were getting loud to the point where the whole room shook.

Daichi was almost upset at himself, not them, for giving Kageyama and Yamaguchi the day off, when he remembered there were other things at the moment that needed his attention. He took a deep breath, paused his inking of a squid onto the man’s arm, and stood up.

“Both of you, out. Go say hello to our new neighbors or something, please, just let me work in peace.”

“Fine...”

“Killjoy.” 

“Do you want to get paid today?”   
  
“Yes please!” They yelled unison.

“Then out.” He pointed to the door.

Faster than the speed of light they bolted out and away to...wherever. Daichi sighed, relieved, and went back to work.

“How many tentacles did you want the squid to have again?”

\----------------------------------------------

Noya and Tanka tried to stifle giggles, but when they glanced over to see the faces they were each making, both finding the other’s expression hilarious, they burst like popped balloons. After fifteen minutes of laughter and nonchalant coughs to pull themselves together, they actually started to move more than five feet away from their place of employment. What a concept.

“So, Noya, where do you wanna go?” Tanaka said, wrapping an arm around his best friend’s shoulders. Nishinoya got on the tips of his toes to reciprocate the action, painfully trying to hold onto Tanaka and walk at the same time.

“Let’s snoop around a little bit! Maybe see what’s up at Suga’s place and all!” Noya grinned upwards and Tanaka did the same. Then they realized they walked to the end of the block and had to make a U-turn to get back to  _Suga’s Sunflowers_ , a shop that actually had a name.

Sugawara was originally going to call it _Sunrise Flowers_ , but Hinata said they should somehow incorporate Suga’s name into it, as the owner, and besides it would just _sound_ better.

After some bashful _“Oh no, but this isn’t just mine, it’s all of yours too!”_ ’s and some _“But I don’t want my name plastered everywhere, and doesn’t having my name on the sign seem too… superficial? Self-absorbed?”_ ’s there was finally a _“Well if you all are so adamant about it...okay, I guess we’ll go with it!”_

Right now at the shop there was an elderly couple buying geraniums, and a little girl in a in a purple dress, who was shushing her matching purple backpack, was with her mom getting white lilies.

For some reason Yamaguchi was there, too. Suspicious. Tanaka and Noya had to investigate now.

Tanka was outside on the left side of the shop, while Noya was on the opposite right. In a spy-like manner, they nodded, completely serious, and went in.

Noya was going to scout out the chrysanthemums, but he couldn’t take a single step forward, for a certain redhead blocked his path.

“Noya-sempai!”

Of course he really didn’t mind.

“Hinata!” 

“Noya-sempai, why are you here? Shouldn’t you be working?” Nishinoya glanced around quickly and leaned in closer to his taller, yet younger, redheaded friend.

“Yes, yes, but right now I’m on a _super secret mission_.”

Hinata gasped and covered his mouth before dropping his hands in excitement.

“A _super secret mission?!_ ”

“Yes!” his voice dropped to a whisper, “Now shhh, we can’t have anyone find out okay? If you can make sure no one finds out, I’ll get you _two_ ice creams, as your sempai, of course.”

Hinata looked like a puppy who was about to pee itself out of sheer joy.

"You got it! Wait-,” he lowered his voice to as close to a whisper as he could get, “You got it, Noya-sempai!” 

Noya was so happy he could cry. A cough behind him broke the mood though, and he turned his head to see Tanaka motioning with to the door. Noya nodded, turned back quickly put a finger to his lips, the universal _shhh_ sign, at Hinata, and walked out with his head held high.

“So, did you dig up any dirt?”

Tanka humphed, “Nah, just heard Yamaguchi blabber to Suga about stuff, he did say something like,” he put on his best Yamaguchi impression, which was pretty bad, “ _Ah, you see, I think Tsukishima actually looks really good without his glasses on._ ” Tanka laughed and Noya joined in.

“So, Noya...you think they’ll get together? Like at all?” Noya almost choked.

“What? You think they like each other? Like, _like like_ each other?” 

Let me remind you that these two are grown men.

“Duh, I mean we’ve already figured out Yamaguchi likes Tsukishima, and it’s so obvious he likes back.”

“Really? Huh, I guess you’re right...how long do you think they’ll take?”

Tanaka’s smile slid into something more mischievous.

“Why, you wanna make a bet?”

Noya tried to play it cool, he shoved his hands in his pockets and said, “Sure,” but you could see the excited glint in his eyes.

“Alright, I bet twenty bucks that they’ll get together sooner rather than later.”

Noya looked confused at first, but responded with, “Fine, then I bet _thirty_ bucks on later rather than sooner.”

Noya really didn’t realized how stupid he was.

“It’s a deal!” They shook on and and laughed heartily, as only they do. They walked almost the entire block now, and decided they could probably return to their workplace by now. As they got to the clear glass door of the unnamed tattoo parlor, Nishinoya graciously held the door open.

“After you, good sir.” 

Tanaka fluttered his eyelashes playfully.

“Why thank you, you kind gentleman.” He went through, and Noya was just about to follow behind him, when he felt the breeze hit his back. He shivered, but the wind reminded him of what a pleasant day it was outside, not too hot, not too cold, with the sun high in the sky. 

“Aw, what the hell.” He turned around to admire the beautiful scenery that was downtown Karasuno wistfully, like he was the main protagonist of some hipster movie. He watched the downtown area for a second, until his eyes caught a glimpse of something else, something, no, _someone_ way better.

He was tall, twice Noya’s height _at leas_ t by his estimation, broad shouldered, with a strong jaw and tan skin and brown hair pulled up in a bun at back of his head. He was carrying one of the ‘book’ labeled boxes, and when he put it down you could see he was wearing an ungodly puke colored sweater. That should have been a huge turn off.

It wasn’t.

“Noya, you’re gonna let out the AC!” he head Tanaka yell, and mutely turned back around from the god in the ungodly sweater and gulped.

Maybe the new pest-shop-bookstore-place wasn’t going to be half bad.

 


	3. Chapter 3

The new bookstore really wasn’t half bad. The place had been up and running for about a week, by now it seemed like there were at least two workers, seeing as how you could see two people walk in a some point during the day. Other than that, no one really knew too much about it, not even it’s name, the building just had a big sign on it that said _BOOKS_.

Noya sighed, looking out the window. He was doing that more and more often.

They had been busy in the morning, with a few teenage girls coming in to get nose studs, which were his specialty. He did all the other piercings too: tongue, eyebrow, lip, you name it. Except more private areas. He did one of those on someone once, it got infected, and they almost got sued. So no more dick piercings, period.

After that, a little old lady who was covered head to toe in tattoos, came in for a little touch up. She was pretty rad, and even complimented Noya on his lip ring. She had one too.

Another young woman came in wanting a dragon on her shoulder, and another biker man came in for a butterfly on his left arm.

Each tattoo took a lot of time, and since they had only two artists, it took a while to get some of the customers through. Yamaguchi and Daichi were the artists (no one really expected Yamaguchi to be a tattoo artist, but he great when it came to drawing and tracing, and he had expert Daichi to help him learn the ropes), Noya did piercings, Kageyama was the desk clerk (who basically just wrote people’s names down and filed whatever paperwork they might have), and Tanaka was just...there. He was kind of their handy-man, doing little odd jobs here and there.

In fact Tanaka had just come back from his lunch break when he had something to announce to the world.

“I’m in love.” He leaned against the counter that had the needles all piled on top nicely and sighed dreamily.

“Woah there, who’s lucky enough to get you all worked up like this?” Daichi chuckled.

Noya scoffed, “More like unlucky.” Tanaka tried to throw a needle at Noya before Daichi panicked and took it from him quickly. Yamaguchi and Noya giggled like schoolgirls, and Kageyama just glared around at everyone, like he usually did.

Tanaka crossed his arms and huffed, “Yeah, well I mean it. I’m in love with the most beautiful creature, who works at that new bookstore.”

Noya did a double take.

“The bookstore? Are you sure?” he was almost pleading.

“Definitely! I saw _her_ walk in and-” 

 _Oh thank dear sweet Jesus_. Noya calmed down a little, now he was just purely curious about who the lucky lady Tanaka managed to tag was.

“-and she has the most beautiful hair and eyes and a cute little beauty mark and-there she is!” he pointed with one long arm towards the window. Everyone, save Daichi and Kageyama, pressed themselves hard against the glass all at once.

“Where?”

“Are you bluffing?”  
  
“No, no, there! On the steps!”   
  
Sure enough, there was a girl in a light purple, almost white, track suit of all things, sitting underneath the _BOOKS_ sign, digging through a lunch box. She did have nice, shiny black hair, and eyes that seemed to sparkle in light, with glasses that magnified her long lashes.

Noya’s eyes widened, “Woah…she’s beautiful.” Daichi and Yamaguchi agreed, then went onwards with whatever else they had to do. Tanaka and Noya were too busy staring at her to notice they were the only ones dramatically pressed against the window now, eyes wide and cheeks pink.

“What’s her name, Tanaka?”

“What?”

“What is this gorgeous maidens name?”  
  
“I don’t know.”  
  
Noya pulled away suddenly.

“We really need to find out what her name is.”

“Yeah...” Tanaka was still gazing out the window.

“So….why don’t you go ask her!” Now Tanaka went stiff. Noya gave that big grin of his and put his hands on his hips.

“Just go talk to her! You’re on your lunch break, she’s on her lunch break, something’s bound to happen! Have some confidence!”

“W-why don’t you go talk to her if you like her so much!” Tanaka barked. This time is was Noya’s turn to go stiff and pink for a second, he bounced back with a , “As your friend I will graciously back down from talking to this beauty for your sake!”   
  
Tanaka rolled his eyes and suddenly found himself yelping.

“What are you doing, Noya?!” Noya was, of course, boosting his friends confidence by pushing him out the door and locking it behind him, waving at him from the other side of the glass and urging him forward with hand gestures.

Tanaka took a deep breath. He could do this. He started walking across the street. He could talk to this girl. She looked up and briefly made eye contact with him. Tanaka ran back across the street as fast as he could and tried everything in his power to get the door open. Daichi shook his head and Noya laughed his head off before letting him in.

Tanaka took him by the shoulders and shook him relentlessly.

“What do you think you were doing?! Oh my god I’m going to kill you, you little-” 

Noya just laughed harder, almost wheezing, tears forming in the corner of his eyes. He was off the ground now, Tanaka was just shaking the living daylights out of him. Noya closed his eyes for a moment to blink the tears away and when he opened them he found himself looking towards the window again. He saw the girl get up and walk slowly up the steps to the bookstore, giving a curt wave to another person leaving the shop.

Wait.

It was him. 

He was wearing another ungodly sweater, this one navy over a white button down shirt, and he sat down with a paper bag on the steps, like the girl did before him. Noya was transfixed as he ruffled through his paperbag and took out a sandwich, all nice and neat with the crust cut off. It looked like a ham sandwich. Noya loved ham sandwiches. He also loved how his brown eyes looked so deep you could swim in them.

“Hey, Noya, what’s the matter with you-” Tanaka followed his friends gaze, stopped, then turned back to him with a smirk.

“Now I get it.” 

“You don’t get anything!”

Noya wriggled out of Tanaka’s grip and looked away, completely flushed. Tanaka giggled and raised an eyebrow, still smirking.

“Whatever you saaaaaaay!”

Noya gulped, stole one last glance sweater guy, and went back to his station to organize the piercings sprawled out all over his table.

“Yeah, whatever.”

**  
**


	4. Chapter 4

He was eating lunch again. Same place, maybe same time? Noya didn’t know, he didn’t check his bright green plastic watch before. This time he took special care to check his watch and it said, in big digital numbers, 1:15 PM.

It reminded him that he should probably take his own lunch break, but at the moment the shop was full of people and, even though none of them wanted piercings, he shouldn’t leave because that would just look bad in front of all these people.

Noya was mostly content to just glance at the bun-headed man from time to time as he paced around the shop, wondering if he could do anything.

By 1:34 PM he was gone, and Noya felt a little dejected. Which was stupid since he had never even met the guy. But he liked the looks of him, he decided they could be friends, maybe, at some point. All he would have to do was actually talk to him. Noya was good at that, at talking to people, but it was the whole ‘make an effort to go to talk them’ thing that got him.

He wasn’t really a book person anyway, he prefered (shojo) manga really, or any sort of comic or picture book to actual literature, and from the looks of the old building, it seemed like they only had what he considered real books.

Ew.

\-----------------------

Okay, Noya was definitely not watching him. _That_ would be creepy. _This_ was coincidence. This time Noya took his lunch break _first_ , meaning two minutes earlier than a certain someone did yesterday, and was wandering out of the shop when he caught a glimpse of him out the corner of his eye.

He was wearing a brown and darker brown plaid sweater this time, despite it being fairly warm outside. He let out what looked like a sigh, and rested his head on his hand, propping himself up like The Thinker.

He did seem like a thinking type. A smart type. He was big and tall and sort of looked like this drug dealer on the corner Noya met once, but he also looked like he was a deep thinker or a philosopher or something. But Noya had never met an actual philosopher before, he just saw pictures of old guys in his high school history textbook.

Noya wasn’t a philosopher, far from it. He glanced at his watch, 1:27 PM. He decided he should get back to work.

\--------------------------

At 1:18 PM Noya opened the door of the no-name tattoo parlor at the same time sweater man opened the door of bookstore. He looked up and sweater man looked down from the top of the stairs and Noya quickly whipped his head away and stared at the ground before taking a seat on the curb. Noya took a small glance in his direction and he seemed...sad? Disappointed? Why would he be either?

He then realized he might have looked away a little too quickly and a little too threateningly. But who cares? He didn’t. Nope, he didn’t care at all that he might have scared away this incredibly handsome guy that was a thinker and scary looking but had the most beautiful eyes.

No, not a single caring thought crossed his mind. That’s what he told himself at least.

He didn’t keep track of when sweater man left, or if he was wearing a sweater at all today. He didn’t care. He really didn’t.

 -----------------------

He lost his watch yesterday. Must’ve dropped somewhere, maybe on his way home? Yeah, maybe something like that.Two guys came in today, one wanted two eyebrow piercings on his left eyebrow and one wanted a crudely drawn dick tattooed on his hand. Daich, with a certain fear for the human race all of a sudden, obliged.

At approximately one-fourteen, or so Noya guessed, sweater man came down the stairs and actually ate lunch with the girl. They were both wearing purple, and it looked like they were eating together in a somewhat awkward silence.

Again, not that he cared. It wasn’t like he wanted to eat lunch with the idiot who was wearing a sweater when it was somehow eighty degrees outside.

But whatever.

\-----------------------

Noya never paid attention to the sort of customers the bookstore got. Whoever they were, there didn’t seem to be a lot of them. He couldn’t believe he never noticed how little they got, maybe, like, three people came in by the time lunch rolled around? Maybe. Only one of them seemed to buy anything, too.

Not like the tattoo parlor was at it’s busiest, but that bookstore made them look like they were the most popular on the block. Like that was true. _Suga’s Sunflowers_ was actually one of the more popular places around, but it didn’t seem to help business out at all. Oh well. Noya really hoped that the bookstore wouldn’t go bankrupt.

\-----------------------

Today, one-thirty-two (Noya actually asked someone this time), he was wearing a grey sweater and was feeding the goddamned pigeons. Tanaka also joined him for lunch.

“I know you look at him, like a lot.” Tanaka said abruptly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He countered, his voice full of confidence and pride but the tips of his ears turned red. Tanaka rolled his eyes and took a bite of sandwich, his was bologna. Noya didn’t really like bologna.

“I know you’re stupid, but stop playing dumb. You watch him, a lot, and it’s kind of creepy.” 

“Like you watching the other girl is less creepy.”

“Hey! I admire from afar, it’s totally different, and you do it too!”

After turning the lightest bit of pink from defending himself, Tanaka sighed.

“See what I mean?” In that one measly second Tanka was distracted, Noya had stolen another glance at the sweatered man throwing grain to the birds. Noya was caught red handed and looked away in embarrassment.

“No, I don’t see what you mean, I don’t see anybody watching anybody around here! No sir-y!” he said a little too loud.

“Y’know without all the sweaters he could be kind of hot.” Noya sighed and slumped against the curb.

“He’s the literal definition of grandpa, I swear.” 

“Ditto to that.”   
  
They talked a little bit about Yamaguchi and Tsukishima and how their bet was doing (“Looks like I'll be the winner here, Noya!” “In your dreams!”). Neither of the younger ones were making any moves so far, so it could be a while. All the better for Noya.

\-----------------------

Today had been one of their most busy days, people coming in left and right. No one was complaining, they really needed the business and the money. It had been work work work all day long, no one got any breaks.

Which meant Noya couldn’t watch for sweater man. But that thought hadn’t even crossed his mind until the day was over and he was back at home, just about to fall asleep, when the image of him feeding the birds from the other day popped back into his mind. But you know, that was a good thing. It had been almost a month and a half since they started having their lunches (conveniently) at the same time.

But this was good. It meant that he was finally getting over someone he never had in the first place. That’s good, right? Right.

Which was weird because he didn’t get any sleep at all that night.

\-----------------------

Not too many people today, a few here and there, one promising to come back once they're old enough to actually get a tattoo. Everyone just chatted away and did whatever. Yamaguchi went next door to the flower shop, as well as Kageyama and Daichi, leaving Tanaka and Noya to watch the store. Bad idea.

“So, Yamaguchi has been going over to the flower shop a lot lately.” Tanaka said casually.

“Oh yeah? Well that means I’m definitely going to win then.” Noya threw a paper airplane into the trashcan.

“Pff, yeah right, I’m so gonna win this.”

“Dude, it’s been like almost two months already, that is later, not sooner, meaning I got this in the bag!”  
  
“Yeah but two months in the span of a year isn’t that long, so I still win!”  
  
“That’s not how it works!”

Tanaka just snickered, mumbling, “I’m gonna win,” under his breath. Noya sighed and went to pick up a broom, he tossed a lot of paper airplanes, paper balls, paper whatchamacallits, all sorts of paper things that missed the trash can completely and went all over the floor. He decided to be a good citizen and clean them all up. He spent a couple of minutes doing that when he got bored and did what people normally do when their bored and have a window: look out it.

And of course his eyes drifted to the spot where the sweatered pigeon feeder would be. And he was there, and he caught Noya’s eye. And he waved. It was shy, and from the sweater man’s expression he seemed a little nervous. Actually a lot nervous. But nevermind that, he actually _waved to him._

It took Noya a second to process everything that was happening when he realized he had to wave back. Which he did, with a lot more enthusiasm than needed. He smiled big and bright and smiled to the man wearing the ridiculously ugly sweater.And he couldn’t be happier.

\-----------------------

Everyday for the next week went something like that. Noya would steal glances out the window and keep watch for sweater man on his lunch break, and when he did come out he would smile and wave and Noya would jump and wave and give thumbs up’s or whatever else he thought like doing.

Sometimes he even got a laugh out of sweater man. That was the best.

Actually everything was the best, sweater man’s laugh just made it better. Business was good, his bet with Tanaka was good, everything was good.

Things were going up for Noya.

Until they weren’t.

**  
  
**


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And they finally have verbal communication!

_Present_

 

Everyone managed to settle their arguing and went back to their respective places of employment, and everything basically went back to normal. Again, keyword being basically, because Nishinoya had not moved from his spot by the window.

“Daichi, it’s been two hours, is he...okay?”

“No, Tanaka, he’s not okay. If what you said was true to even the smallest degree, he is definitely not okay.”

Noya just whimpered. He had worked so hard, so so hard at figuring everything out to finally get to a stable place with sweater man, and now it’s all gone. 

“I can still hear you, you know!” he wailed. It was so nice, what they had. Waves and smiles exchanged everyday, and he was just getting up the nerve to talk to the guy! Now Noya didn’t know if he could ever face him again.

Daichi sat down on the floor next to him, then patted his back.

"There, there, it’s-”

“No it’s not! It’s not okay!”

“You’re right. It’s not okay right now, but it could get better. It will get better.”

“No it won’t, I totally messed every single thing up! How in hell can it get better!?”

“You don’t really know him, do you? You haven’t said two words to the guy, right?”   
  
Noya nodded.

“Then you can make up for it all you have to do is actually introduce yourself to him. And-”

“And?”  
  
“Apologize.”

\-----------------------

It was the day after the accident, eleven-forty-five am. Noya decided he was going to apologize, introduce himself, and hopefully salvage whatever they had of their relationship. Whatever the relationship between a tall man in sweaters and little man who watched him a lot was.

"Okay, Noya, it’s go time! You can do this! You’ve rehearsed this and everything, you are so ready!” He was walking across the street. He even got permission from Daichi to leave work early.

Noya jogged up the steps two at a time, and was just reaching for the door when a thought occurred to him.

_What if he’s not even there? What if the other girl is on duty and he quit or something because I scared him away_

He gulped, fingers trembling on the doorknob. He was just about to bolt, following the example of Tanaka, when the door started opening up.

And of course the one on the other side of the door was him. Sweater man. There he was in all his disgusting, this time pink, sweatered glory. Except he wasn’t very glorious. He was tall and intimidating, but he seemed to be rather nervous.

Sweater man looked down to see an arm. This arm was Noya’s, and it was still connected to the doorknob.

Noya pulled back quickly and coughed to compose himself. It was now, or never. He took a deep breath, readying himself into a power stance.

“You!” He took said power stance.

“M-me?” Sweater man hesitantly held a finger up to point at himself.

“Yes, you!” He coughed again and pointed straight across at him, then realized that his pointer finger only came to his belly-button, and lifted his arm height to point at his face.

“I’m Nishinoya Yuu and I have come over here to...to say sorry!”

Sweater man blinked, obviously still confused. Noya sighed and dropped his arms.

“You know, the uh, incident? You kind of just ran away and I wanted to say sorry for freaking you out, I guess.”

It clicked in his head, and sweater man’s face showed it.

“Oh! No, no, that was-um-that was my fault. I-I mean I was a little...confused and then a little uh...scared? I guess-and I just uh-I panicked. It was really very rude and I was-I was coming over to apologize, actually.”

The tall man was staring at his feet and shifting uncomfortably.

“I’m-I’m Azumane Asahi, but uh, you can call me Asahi.” He tried smiling and held out his hand.

“You already got my name, but all my friends call me Noya!” Nishinoya grinned and shook Asahi’s hand excitedly with both of his own hands.

“Oh well it’s um, you know nice, to ah, finally meet you officially.” 

“The feeling’s mutual!” Noya smiled bright with all his teeth, in turn Asahi smiled too.

“That’s good to hear, Noya.” 

“But of course, Asahi!” He couldn’t stop smiling. He really couldn’t. If you walked up to him and said, ‘Hey, dude, can you stop smiling?’ He would say, ‘Fat chance!’

In fact he was so busy smiling he barely realized when Asahi’s eyes darted downwards, then back up at Noya, then down again, then back up Noya. Then back down at their hands. Which were still connected.

Both parties coughed and looked away shyly, when surprisingly Asahi spoke up.

“So...I guess, goodbye? I mean I should probably get back to work, and you should probably get back to work, I don’t really want to keep you or anything so you don’t get in trouble.”

“Thanks for the concern, but I don’t mind the trouble if it’s for you!” He was just trying to be friendly, honest, but that came out much more flirty than intended.

“O-oh well, thank you...I um, I should go…”

“Oh yeah, okay then. I’ll see you later Asahi!” He threw one smile back at him before jogging back down the steps, again, two at a time. When he heard the door close behind him, he dropped the smiling act.

“I was supposed to be apologizing, I was apologizing! But...did I flirt? That was flirting. That was so flirting and I want to flirt just! Not this soon!”

Noya was mortified.

He couldn't decide if me made things better or worse.


	6. Chapter 6

Lunch time had rolled around again, and Noya was, again, watching out the window for any sudden movements that caught his eye. Specifically sudden movements that came from the bookstore. He thought now that he and sweater ma-Asahi-were  _finally_  on good terms with each other, maybe he could find a way to work his way up the relationship ladder. He already had a head start, though that head start took him two months to attain, and he climbed stairs the same way he climbed ladders: two steps at a time. 

He was one half that was willing and ready to go, all he needed was the other one. His other half didn't seem to be too compliant. 

Noya tried to busy himself waiting for him, for the hundredth time it seemed like. Was he always doing the waiting? For now, yes. But luckily he could manage that, he could wait and wait, and then bounce right back, maybe in time he wouldn't have to wait anymore. 

Nonchalantly, he took his lunch break and just so happened to walk in front of the flower shop, and also _just_ so happened to peer in enough to make out the kind of people that were in there, definitely not looking for one sweatered man in particular. 

Okay, now even he couldn't lie to himself anymore. They were on a first name basis! That meant he actually  _could_ go on the hunt for Asahi now, since they were friends and all. Well, they were _friendly_ with each other at least. That was something. 

Sadly, he wasn't in the flower shop. 

The next day, he was nowhere to be found. 

And the same the next.

And the next.

"Why me? I thought we were okay now, I know his name and everything!"  
  
Noya was sitting on the curb again with Tanaka, and man, they really needed to convince Daichi to get some chairs or something to put out front so they didn't have to sit on cold cement. Well, they could actually go somewhere else to eat, but what would the point of that be?   
  
The two were sharing a bucket of hot wings Tanaka brought along, Noya filling his emptiness with deep-fried, spicy goodness. For the most part, it was working. 

"Dude, don't take it personally, maybe he just has shit to do this week?" Tanaka suggested, two wings shoved in his mouth at once.

"But what if it  _is_ personal? What if Asahi doesn't like me or my personality or all the metal in my face? What if, Tanaka, _what if_!"  
  
"Then he's a bastard, you rock harder than a boulder."   
  
Noya let out a long exhale from his nose.

"Thanks man, both for the advice and the hot wings." He started chewing on another one, throwing a bone back into the bucket.

"Anytime, anytime."  
  
\--------------------

"You know, if you want to see him, you could go visit him, right?" Yamaguchi was trying his best to offer his own advice while etching an extremely detailed peacock into a girls right arm.

"A valid point, but remember, he works in a bookstore, and books and Noya's don't mix." He flipped the page of his tabloid magazine, then held it up.

"See?  _This_ is the kind of stuff I read, _"Woman Gives Birth to an Alien Baby in a Barn Halfway Across the World."_ I like that. He probably doesn't, he likes, you know, big famous classical writers and junk, I just bet he does! He's compatible with real  _book_ books, I'm not." He didn't have any information whatsoever to base this assumption on, but whatever, it worked for him and that's that.  
  
Yamaguchi tilted his head to the side, looking up from the orange beak of the precariously drawn peacock he was currently working on.

"But you're compatible with each other?"   
  
"Yeah, right, I guess..."  
  
\--------------------

Trash day, or as Noya liked to call it, the day he should be thrown out. Also the day Tanaka should be thrown out. And you know what? He was pissed at Asahi for not showing up in forever, so trash day is the day  _he_ should be thrown out too. If he could find a big enough trash can. Maybe a dumpster would work better. 

It was Noya's turn to take out all the trash their bins had collected for the week, which consisted of a lot of paper airplanes and things of that ilk. Though he was physically strong, his emotions had taken a one way trip downward, so he decided he was just going to drag the big black trash bag out the back entrance and into the dumpster.

Which was a bad idea seeing as how the dumpster was in a dirty alleyway made up of rough gravel and had broken sharp things littered everywhere. Needless to say, the bag busted, and Noya had to clean up the fallen mess.

He was on his hands and knees, picking up papers and tissues and  _oh that's where his watch went._

He was too distracted by his favorite, bright neon green watch (what? he's had it since middle school) that he didn't notice the other figure walk in the alley from the other opening, and throw something heavy into the dumpster. It wasn't until he heard the loud  _thud_ that he started to panic. Noya curled up behind the trash bag, and if was just full and big enough and he was just small enough that he actually could hide behind it. Then he realized he was being cowardly, and promptly peeked out from behind his safety trash bag to see if the coast was clear.

It wasn't.

There was a big guy, a  _really_ big guy, at the other end of the dumpster, sighing with a sad expression on his face, looking back over at the contents of the dumpster which he just threw in, and then back at his hand, which had some sort of bag in it.

Noya carefully skittered around to his end of the dumpster, and stood on his toes to peer into it when the other guy wasn't looking. There was a very large, burlap bag in the dumpster, roughly the shape of a human body. If you squinted, it sorta looked like a body anyway. 

Noya squinted.

He ducked, then looked back at the man and realized he was wearing a sweater that was a grey with white pinstripes, and was currently shuffling through the contents of his bag, which smelled awfully funny, even from all the way where Noya was.

 _No_ _._

He promptly jumped up and pointed a accusing finger at him.

"You really are a criminal!"   
  
This made Asahi jump back and drop his bag, actually it was more like a sack, but that wasn't the issue here. The issue was he was now associated with a  _criminal._ That itself wasn't that bad, but now he may or may not be harboring feelings for a  _criminal,_ that was the problem. In any other case scenario, it could've been pretty hot. 

In this case scenario, it definitely was not.

"W-w-what? Oh my God, no, no, I-I'm not criminal! I swear! Oh my God!"  
  
"That's what they all say!"  
  
Noya was facing a lot of inner turmoil.

"First you kill a guy, maybe a child from the looks of it-holy shit you killed a kid! Then you get rid of the body and now you're selling drugs, oh man, oh man, OH MAN!"

Noya had his both his hands in his hair, shaking his head frantically.

"B-body? No, no, no, those are b-books."   
  
"You killed a bunch of books!"  
  
"No! They-they had a lot of water damage, and-and-and-Kiyoko said we didn't have enough room in our trashcan for all of them and said to bring-bring them here."  
  
Noya stopped clawing at his skull, while Asahi dug a water-worn book out of the dumpster to show him.

"Oh...But what about the drugs!"  
  
"There are no dru-drugs!" Asahi looked like a cat that had been thrown in a tub of cold water unexpectedly, this whole ordeal was not helping his anxiety. 

"They-it-it's just papers. From the, um, I just printed them out, so-so the ink's still wet and uh, just here." He walked over to Noya carefully, and put a yellow piece of paper in his hand.

**HAVE YOU SEEN THIS KITTEN? LOST A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO. RESPONDS TO THE NAME CROW. IF FOUND PLEASE CONTACT AT-**

"...You lost your cat?"  
  
"No! I uh, mean no. This little girl lost her cat-kitten, kitten a little while back when she took it out of the house to go shopping, and her mom asked if I could hand out the flyers and copy a few of them for her."  
  
"Ohhhh...that makes a lot more more sense than you being a murdering drug dealer."   
  
"I...uh...I kind of get that a lot, actually...sorry."  
  
"What are you apologizing for? I'm the one who's sorry! After all, I kinda judged you based on your appearances, which I clearly have to right to do." He held a thumb up to himself, gesturing to his many piercings and wild hair. After Asahi didn't respond, Noya tried again.

"Heh...you know the atmosphere doesn't really help either..." Dingy alleys did tend to make one more cautious and fearful.

"Y-yeah just, sorry again for um-everything, I guess."  
  
Noya raised an eyebrow at the man, and set a hand on his shoulder. Well, he would have, but their height difference made that impossible, so he just settled for putting a hand oh his elbow.

"It's completely fine, I promise! But...I think I might just ask you for something to make up for this fiasco! If, you know, that's cool."  
  
"Y-yeah?" Asahi gulped twice, twitching at the warmth on his elbow. Noya smiled his signature smile up at him.

"Have lunch with me?"

 


	7. Chapter 7

In the end, Noya didn't even get a proper response from Asahi, his phone went off right when he was about to say something through that adorable stutter of his. Asahi whispered apology after apology quickly before he answered the call, and as he walked away with his phone to his ear, Nishinoya gave a big ol' goodbye wave to which he politely responded with his own, the tiniest smile gracing his lips. 

Even though that was the second not-so-pleasant encounter they had, Noya had an unwavering happiness follow him for the rest of the day, hell, rest of the  _week._

All because Asahi didn't say  _no._ Noya asked him out (totally in a friend way, only in a friend way) and though he didn't really say yes, he didn't _decline_  either. So Nishinoya had a (friendly) date.

Unless Asahi wanted it to be a slightly less unfriendly date. Noya was down for that too.

When that glorious time of day rolled around again, the minute Noya saw Kiyoko (who he assumed was the girl who worked at the bookstore) leave her place on the concrete steps and saw Asahi sit where she previously sat, he ran out of the shop without another word and made a beeline for the bookstore. 

Asahi was in plain sight, he was right there, _target acquired,_ he was just walking down the street when-

Nishinoya almost got hit by a truck. Well, it was a minivan, but it was driving way too fast, zig-zaging all over the place, so it might as well have been a truck. It was his own fault for jaywalking. 

He made his way to Asahi on shaky legs, running the rest of the way across the street as well as he could, and figured he'd get over it with a nice lunch with the not-so-scary-sweater-man. Except Asahi had seen everything, his eyes were wide as dinner plates and he kept his not-so-focused gaze on Noya. By the time Noya noticed his panic, he was already taking a seat next to Asahi on the cold concrete steps.

"So...what's up?" He was trying to be smooth.

"I-I think I just had a heart attack." He was definitely not smooth.

"Wait, shouldn't y-you be the one who had the heart attack? You were almost killed!"

"Pff, I've had worse happen to me." Noya just shrugged it off and looked through his paper sack lunch.

"Worse being...?"

"Well my beta fish died after fiv-four days, and I invited like a ton people to the funeral, one person came, and when I tried to flush her down the toilet, the toilet got clogged and the one other person who showed up, my pal Tanaka, and I spent three hours trying to unclog it, ruining our tuxedos in the process."

"That's...really bad, but how is it worse than almost getting run over by a minivan?"  
  
"That fish and I had a very emotional bond!" Nishinoya fake sobbed.

"I'm sorry for your loss?" He waved it off.  
  
"Nah, it's cool, it happened a while back. I'm looking for a new fish now anyway, maybe one more exotic!"  
  
"Like a saltwater fish, maybe?"  
  
"Yeah! That'd be awesome!" Noya took a hunk out of his ham sandwich and Asahi took a sip from his thermos. 

"Maybe a shark!"  
  
Asahi choked on the contents of said thermos.

"I-I-I really don't think you should have a shark!"  
  
"Aw, why not? Do you not see me as a dependable shark owner?"  
  
"Yes! I mean no! I mean-actually kind of, yes." He looked away sheepishly and Noya gasped and looked utterly (fakely) shattered. 

"You wound me!" 

"I didn't mean to offend! Oh god I'm sorry-" Nishinoya snickered, then started full out howling. Asahi looked back at him, one part confused and one part lightly offended.

"I'm kidding! You didn't actually think I'd get a pet shark, did you?" Noya was still wheezing a little.

"In retrospect I-yeah, okay I sort of did." Noya was now wheezing a lottle. Once he composed himself, he turned his eyes back to Asahi.

"I'm terrified of sharks, and bears, but only really big bears! Basically anything big with sharp teeth. So yeah, no sharks for this guy. And frankly, I would be a terrible shark owner anyway. I don't know the first thing about shark training! I'd be a disgrace to shark tamers everywhere!"  
  
"Shark tamers? I know there are lion tamers, but I think sharks tame themselves."  
  
"Have you ever met a tamed, wild shark?"  
  
"I've never met any wild shark. I don't really like the beach."   
  
"See? Don't judge the sharks without even getting to know them! That's hippocracy!" Asahi gave a short laugh.

"You mean hypocrisy?"

"Duh, that's what I said! Hippocrackacy!" Asahi laughed harder. 

"No, no, you're saying hippo, like the animal-"  
  
"I thought hippocrackackackcy was the study of hypocritical hippopoti?"

"The plural of hippopotamus is hippopotamuses. And wait, you said hypocritical right, but you can't say-" It was then when Asahi noticed Noya's slightly sly smile.

"...You're pretty sneaky, Noya."  
  
"And I thought you were smart, Asahi! Jeez, it took you that long to figure out I can actually pronounce _words_ right! I mean I still think you're pretty smart, maybe just a little slow."  
  
"... _You're_ pulling the slow card on me?"

"Okay, point taken. But whatever, now I know the plural of hippopotamus, so it's all good."  
  
"And I've learned never to flush a beta fish down the toilet, so I think we can both take something away from this conversation."  
  
"Also, point number two on why not to flush your pet fish down the drain, your landlord will get super pissed. Mine did! Well, I almost broke half the pipes in my apartment but still, good experience."  
  
"If you say so..."  
  
"Hey! It was a good experience, a great one in fact! Have you ever had any cool near death experiences? Nope! I didn't think so!" 

"I don't see how breaking a toilet and water pipes counts as a near death experience, but uh, well...," he twiddled his thumbs nervously, "I almost got mugged once. If that counts."  
  
" _You got mugged?"_ Noya gaped with a mouth full of sandwich. __  
  
"Almost!"

"Who tried to mug you?! I swear when I get my hands on them-"  
  
"They didn't, um,  _mug_ me, really. They just asked me for my wallet. In the uh, in the middle of the night. After I was leaving a club. And they had a knife. But it wasn't really  _mugging_ -"  
  
"Wait, wait, wait, back it up. You were at a club? You don't seem like the clubbing type to me."  
  
"I'm really not, I worked there. I was a bouncer, actually."  
  
" _You were a bouncer!"_

"Y-yeah. Um, people are generally scared of me, so I got hired there and I really didn't have to do much but stand there, well, for a while, anyway. After a bit the people started getting harsher and harsher and I didn't have the guts-heart to really  _do_ anything about it, so I was uh, fired." 

Asahi was starting to twiddle with his thumbs harder and harder, his gaze pointed at the ground. Noya frowned a deep frown and scooted a little closer to him, gently nudging Asahi with his elbow.

"Are you okay?"  
  
"Y-y-yeah I guess I'm just a-uh-a bit..." His voice was getting quieter and quieter. Noya knew he had to intervene. 

"It's okay, you don't need to be embarrassed! That's a pretty cool story! In fact it's a _really_ cool story! Everyone's gotten fired at some point. _Plus,_  it's good to know there are at least  _some_  nice bouncers out there. I met this one guy who was one-hundred percent buff-and-gruff-bouncer and like, zero percent eyebrow." 

Asahi gave way to a small smile, which just urged Nishinoya on. 

"I'm not even kidding! He was all," he covered both his eyebrows with his hands and pulled a tight lipped, comically mean expression, "Grr! I'm going to eat all your carbohydrates and punch your kids in the face, then go snort protein powder, grrrr!"   
  
Asahi was laughing the hardest he had ever laughed in Noya's presence, and it made his heart flutter and and suddenly he started to grin wider and wider.

"Well, actually he was really quiet and didn't say anything, but you get the picture." He shrugged, but his grin didn't falter one bit. 

"That's amazing."  _You're amazing,_ was what Noya wanted to say. When Asahi's eyes opened up wide like that and he could see right into each iris' fudgy brown warmth, and the way his smile wasn't too bright or flashy, but suited him _just_ right, he really was amazing.

Then his eyebrow raised and Noya realized he had been staring, not through the safety of his own window, but out in the dangerous open where Asahi could actually tell he was staring at him and Noya would have to figure out a way to cover it up. 

"Nah, that story of your's was amazing! Sounds like you've lived a life on the wild side, eh?" He nudged his elbow a little harder into him this time.

"Oh yes, definitely. I visit my mother twice a week and work and live in an extremely safe neighborhood, I'm so very wild."  
  
"Azumane Asahi, was that sarcasm I heard?" Noya gave a grin more on the sly side as Asahi merely shrugged.

"Nishinoya Yuu, I have absolutely no idea what you're referring to." Asahi's own smile seemed a little too smug. 

Noya opened his mouth to respond when a person, a customer no doubt, walked right in between them to get to the bookstore. Suddenly, the calm and sarcastic Asahi from moments ago was gone, and he was back to his usual, anxious self.

"I-I should get back to work." He whispered.

"Yeah, so should I." Noya tried to whisper back, but his whispering voice was still pretty loud. Both men packed up their lunch bags and quietly went their separate ways. Noya was a little bit disappointed that their lunch break had to be cut short, but hey, they got to eat lunch together  _and_ he found out Asahi could be pretty funny when he wanted to be. He could also be pretty beautiful too. So Noya wasn't all that disappointed after all.

\------------------------

It was closing time around Daichi's place (maybe that should be the new name of the tattoo parlor?  _Daichi's Place,_ eh, maybe) and all the fine young gentleman who were currently employed there were milling around, cleaning things up, and getting ready to go home for the day. Yamaguchi was on his way out when he was stopped in his tracks by someone towering above him in the doorway.

"Oh! Hey, Noya! You have a visitor!"   
  
Asahi was clearly visible from the doorway, you could see him above Yamaguchi easily. Tanaka snickered.

"Noya, go say hi to your boyfriend for me~"

Nishinoya stomped out the door, after Yamaguchi moved aside, of course, and paid no mind to Tanaka or the fact that the tips of his ears were burning. He huddled Asahi out the door so they could at least talk in peace somewhat.

"What's up?"   
  
Again, Asahi twiddled his thumbs. 

"I-um-I wanted to just-check on you, to make sure you were okay-from earlier."  
  
"Earlier? Oh, you mean the minivan?"   
  
Asahi flinched.

"Ah, yes, that." He coughed.

"Also, I-I wanted to apologize for my rude departure." 

"That too? Hey, it's cool! I'm fine and it's no sweat, I promise it's no big deal at all!" Asahi looked relieved.

"Are you sure you're okay?"  
  
"Yep! Totally and absolutely fine!" Asahi looked even  _more_ relieved.

"Good...that's good." They stood in silence for a little bit, silently shuffling feet, shoving hands in pockets, things like that. Asahi was the first to break the silence.

"So...goodbye then?"  
  
"Huh? Oh, yeah, goodbye." Noya looked up in just enough time to see Asahi start to walk away, when he gathered up his courage enough to give a better goodbye. Sort of. He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled.

"Asahi! Make it home safe, okay! Oh and goodnight!"

Happy with his parting words, he turned back around.

"Goodnight! Be careful, Noya!"   
  
After hearing that he put extra effort into being careful on his way home.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I've noticed a lot of problems in my grammar, so i'm going to go back and edit through some of the previous chapters, I think, I'm so sorry about that! Anyways, I hope you've enjoyed the even more verbal communication between these two, there will be much more of that to come!


	8. Chapter 8

This time around, Nishinoya decided he wouldn't wait until lunch to visit Asahi. It was a Wednesday, ten in the morning, and not a single soul around the block was busy. 

"Tanaka, cover for me." He gave Tanaka a pat on the back, whistling and trying his hardest not to falter in his carefree attitude, even though just by looking at him you could tell he was up to something. Noya put his hand on the door and-WHOOSH-there he goes. Daichi didn't mind if he was skipping work, it was a slow day, and anyway, he had a bet with Suga that Noya and Asahi would hook up by the end of the month. So if he had to let the short, loud, annoying, hyperactive boy out of his work duties from time to time, then oh well. Daichi could manage that. 

Noya took about five minutes to survey his surroundings and make sure that another minivan was _not_ going crazy on the road, then ran as fast as his legs could carry him across the street to the bookstore, basically jumping up the steps. He swung the door open so hard that it slammed into the wall, the little bell that chimed above the doorway shook so fast it looked like it was going to fall from its place above the mantel.

The slamming of the door also resulted in a loud slam, which made Kiyoko, who was at the front desk, flinch in his direction. Asahi was carrying a bunch of boxes, each one piled on top of another, and the loud noise scared him enough to make him fling all three boxes upward with a squeak.

It seemed to be snowing books until they all came raining down in various  _thuds_ and  _bangs._

Nishinoya wasn't paying attention to the weather anomaly happening in the store. His attention was focused on the fact he made Asahi  _squeak_ like a  _mouse._ It was precious. And cute. And oh my god that was literally the most adorable sound to ever grace his ears. 

Asahi did not  _look_ adorable though. Well, okay, he _did,_ but he also looked  _terrified._ He put his hand to his heart and slumped a little, trying to even out his breathing.

"You...you scared me."  
  
Nishinoya scratched the back of his head, trying to rid himself of the heat on his cheeks.

"Whoops...sorry about that." 

Asahi let out a shaky breath and kneeled down to the floor to pick up the fallen books. Noya slid against the hardwood on his knees to help him, then he got up again to close the door, _gently_ this time, and helping Asahi sort through them.

These books just so happened to be classical literature.

"Ew." He said to no one in particular as he picked up _The Grapes of Wrath_ by its corner, carelessly flinging it aside.

"Ew?" Asahi looked up at him, surprised.

"Uh, no, I said ewe! Like the female sheep! I swear I just saw a book on them a second ago, haha!" He tried to cover up his mistake with a flashy grin. What? He didn't want to insult Asahi's taste in reading materials, that would be just awful. Even though he didn't really even know if Asahi  _liked_ these kind of books. Better safe than sorry, in this case. 

"Oh...okay then." Asahi went back to sorting. 

It took a while for them to clean up, which they did in an unbearable silence, and after little while Kiyoko left them to go take stock in the back. That's what she said, at least. It seemed more like she was letting the two have a slightly more private time together. It was the polite thing to do. 

Nishinoya picked up one of the heavy boxes and put it up on the counter, with great difficulty since he could barely reach across the counter, like he saw Asahi do before him, and when he went to lift the last one on top of the others, he found that the height of the table, with two large boxes added to it, was taller than him. Great. Asahi watched him struggle for a second before offering to help.

"Nah, I got this."  
  
He really didn't have this. He tilted side to side, almost comically, and was just about to fall when Asahi, the brave man he is, took the box out from underneath him and placed it on the counter. Noya pouted and crossed his arms.

"I could've done that, you know."  
  
Asahi weakly smiled at him.

"Sure...but it puts me at ease to know you won't topple over."  
  
"Why's that? Could _someone_ be concerned for my well being?"   
  
Asahi flushed with a, "I-I just don't like seeing people get hurt..."  
  
"Aw, you are concerned for my well being!" Noya beamed with pride at the now sputtering Asahi. He laughed it off, taking into account that he and Asahi were standing pretty close, and on further inspection, he found Asahi to _not_ be twice his height. Yes, he was much taller that Noya, but he wasn't as tall as he thought. 

"Hey, Asahi, just how tall are you?"

"Um...around 184 centimeters, 6'0, I think"  
  
Noya deflated a little. Though he was only 25 cm (or 7.5 inches) shorter! He just exaggerated the the height difference by a lot. Well, he _was_ still a lot shorter than him, but not as short as he thought! That alone seemed to brighten his spirits.

Asahi noticed this, but decided not to ask, he thought it was better to just let Noya shine bright on his own accord. Noya sauntered around the shop, poking at books, trying to reach shelves, maybe taking a peek at the manga section; all those fun things. He was just trying to busy himself while Asahi followed him around, making sure he wouldn't break anything, of course. No ulterior motive to watching Noya get that adventurous look in his eyes and carefully analyze all his surprisingly endearing actions. Nope, no other reason other than to be a helpful employ to a customer. That's it. Yeah.

In the end Noya ended up buying a lot more than he anticipated. One manual on how to repair watches, one pocket dictionary, two books on goldfish training, one cook book, three tabloid magazines, and a piece of  _classical literature;_ Homer's  _The Odyssey._

He managed to scrape together enough loose change from his pockets to purchase everything. 

"Are you sure you want all this?" Asahi was hesitant to accept his money. 

"Absolutely! I could use a lot of this," he lied through his teeth (who needs classical literature and goldfish books anyway?), "and besides, what I don't read I can give away! I already have a few of this year's Christmas presents!" He gave a haughty laugh, and though Asahi rang him up, he looked unsure. A little bit grateful, but unsure. When he reached out to give Noya his plastic bag full of books, Noya noticed a loose thread on his green sweaters sleeve. He took the bag with one hand, and caught Asahi's arm with the other. 

"Do you have any scissors?"  
  
Asahi looked terrified for a second, before slowly removing them from a desk drawer, shakily setting then down on the counter. Noya rolled his eyes.

"I'm not going to cut your arm off, you just have a loose thread, you ween." Asahi exhaled the breath his was apparently holding in, and let Noya snip the little piece of wool away. It took him a few tries since he could hardly see over the counter, but he managed to do it just fine. He set the scissors back on the counter, eyeing his bright green sweater with a dark yellow stripe running across it.

"Where do you get those sweaters anyway?"  
  
"My...my mom made them for me." Noya blinked his wide eyes at that, begging Asahi for more detail.

"I went through a couple of growth spurts in junior high and high school, and my mom went through a stage of having a passion for knitting, so she made me a couple of sweaters, then found out it was easier to just adjusting home made sweaters than to just buy me a whole new wardrobe every few months. And most of them still fit so...I save money on clothes..."  
  
Noya found that so incredibly sweet he thought he was going to get a cavity from just talking to Asahi. 

"Wow, you must really love your mom." Did you mean:  _wow that's so nice and sweet and just how good of a person can you be?_ _  
_

Asahi just scratched the back of his neck bashfully.

"Y-yeah..."  
  
Noya grinned up at him for the tenth time today, and he noted that it made Asahi's face flush a little more.

\---------------------------

"Oh my god he's  _perfect._ "  
  
Noya was sweeping up his toppled over piercing table, little pieces of metal having been flung everywhere. A mother came in with her young son to get another tattoo on her shoulder, and was so insistent when Daichi tried to convince her to come back another day, perhaps one where she didn't have to make her son tag along, she refused outright. She was pretty rude, and her son was just running milling around, he knocked over the hundreds of pieces of little shiny metals onto the floor.

But Noya didn't care about that brat or his mom or all the extra work he had to put in. He was just happy he had someone to dump all his mushy feelings onto. That someone being Tanaka.

"Slow your role, Romeo."    
  
"No you don't get it, he's a big fluffy angel!"  
  
"Yes, yes, he wears his mommy-made sweaters from high school as an adult, totally precious."  
  
"Argh, no, you don't get it _._ He helps save kittens! And he's smart and funny and wants to make sure people take care of themselves and he just  _cares_ in general and-"

"And he's cute and blushy and stuttery-yes  _I know, Noya."_  

"I swear his heart is made of gold."   
  
"If you love him so much why don't you marry him?"  
  
Tanaka snickered at his friends response; Noya turned around and just started telling him off with things like; _"Oh shut up. you don't know me at all"!_ or  _"I don't like him like_ that! _"_

The thing that got to Tanaka was when Noya said, "Well, I guess I won't tell you  _her_ name then."  
  
"You're a little shit, you know that?"

 


	9. Chapter 9

It was raining. Nishinoya was pissed.

Now, Noya loved rain, don't get him wrong. He loved splashing in puddles, catching raindrops on his tongue; in fact he was a fan of rain and snow alike, any precipitation really, as long as it wasn't deadly.

"This blows." He said to himself, drawing stick figures on the fogged up windows. Today he forgot his umbrella and his coat and they had no customers  _and_ he couldn't have lunch with Asahi. Not only that, but while Daichi basically let everyone go over to the flower shop and have fun, he made Noya stay and man the shop as punishment for skipping work yesterday. What? He couldn't just let him off that easily. 

So Noya was stuck, alone, without warmth or food or _anything to do_.

"I should so be allowed to go next door, Suga made hot chocolate and everything!" In his rage he threw his head against the window, the stumbled back, clutching his now aching forehead.

"This really sucks butt..."   
  
For the next few hours, Noya did all he could to keep himself occupied: he slid around on the tiled floors in his socks, he sung show tunes, he sung  _not_  show tunes; he even  _read_  the books he bought yesterday. But at the end of the day, he was still bored. 

He still had a while before quitting time, and he had to wait for Daichi to officially tell him to go home. So he just watched the rain pour down harder and harder, sitting criss cross applesauce, head in hand, and started counting upwards because  _why not;_ he had nothing better to do. 

Noya was startled out of his sitting position when he heard a tap on the door. The angel himself, Azumane Asahi, was there in a heavy black coat, umbrella in one hand, and a cup holder with four different drinks from Starbucks in the other. Just the sight of him made Noya jump in excitement and he raced to the door to let Asahi in and out of the rain.

"Asahi! Why are you here? Oh man you really need to get out of the cold, it's cold as balls out there!" He shuffled Asahi in and made him promptly take off his coat, and surprise surprise, he was wearing another sweater. This one was red with a bumble bee etched onto it.  _Cute._ _  
_

"I uh-I saw you-I mean I was on a um, a coffee run, and when I was walking down the street I saw you and you were....running around and shouting? Any-anyway, you seemed to be alone and kind of bored, and I had to work through lunch, so-so when I-I got some free time I uh-I decided to get you some coffee-or-or something. Since, you know, it's raining, and cold-but then I realized I didn't know it you even _liked_ coffee, so I got hot chocolate too and-and then I realized I didn't know if you liked coffee  _or_ hot chocolate or-or if you had an allergy-so I got-um-I bought tea, too." 

He was holding out the hot beverages to him, face flushed from both the cold and the fact that was the most he had ever said to Noya in one sitting. Noya himself was a little stunned by all that, and even  _more_  stunned that Asahi even thought of him. He smiled and smiled and wow would you look at that, his boredom was completely gone and was replaced by pure joy. 

"Hell yeah! I like coffee and tea and  _especially_  hot chocolate!" He chose one cup at random, checked the label which read  _HC,_ and took a huge gulp. Warmth filled him, and Asahi seemed to calm down.

"Thanks, this is just what I needed!" 

"It's no problem, it's uh, kind of to pay you back for buying all those books."  
  
"What? No man, I bought those because I needed them! You didn't need to pay me back." He fiddled with the lid of his cup for a second.

"Besides...we're friends, right? Friends aren't obligated to pay each other back, you just, do nice things for each other."   
  
Asahi looked down at Noya, and he saw that the shorter boy was fairly flustered; all flushed and averting eye contact with anything but the floor.

Asahi smiled.

"Yeah...you're-you're right." 

Noya smiled back up at him and slid back down to the floor, patting a tile next to him, motioning for Asahi to sit. They really didn't have too many chairs, it was all workspace, and the only chairs were the ones the customers used. Noya didn't want to sit Asahi down on a chair where a sweaty guy who got at YOLO tattooed on his thigh previously sat, so the floor was a much better option.

"So...do you like coffee, hot chocolate, or tea?" Noya was trying to start off the conversation.

"I'm-I like tea, but I um, I got hot chocolate this time." He picked up his own Starbucks cup, which seemed oddly more full than it had been when he was drinking it on his way down the street. A small surge of panic filled him as he watched Noya chug down his drink. After a second, Noya picked up on the new nervousness he felt in the room, as well as the look Asahi was giving him.

"What? Is there something on my face? Do I have whipped cream mustache?" He wiped his upper lip, then looked down at his cup, turning it in has hands. He froze as he read  _Asahi_ written out on the cup in blue pen, and started to flip at the fact the rest of the cups had  _Nishinoya Yuu_ written on them, including the one Asahi was holding.

"Oh...oh no-wait! I can fix this." He reached over and grabbed Asahi's, or technically  _his,_ hot chocolate from his hands, quickly flipping the lids off both cups and started pouring the hot substance from one cup to the other.

"B-be careful that's-"  
  
"Chill, I can fix this, see-"  
  
Noya didn't fix it. In fact he made it worse by spilling the contents of both cups on to himself, staining his shirt. Neither of them moved. Asahi was clearly panicking internally, and Noya was trying not to scream from scalding himself.

Minutes went by and they were both frozen in place. After the burning sensation stopped, Noya tried, unsuccessfully, to lighten the mood.

"Wow, that hot chocolate really  _is_ hot." He almost let a  _but not hotter than you_ slip through, but caught himself when he noticed Asahi clutching his chest and  _really_  started panic now. Shit. 

"A-a-are you okay?" He managed to stutter out. Noya was bent on reassuring him now.

"Totally! I'm not burned or anything!"  
  
"But...but your shirt."  
  
"Oh yeah, pretty stupid of me to wear white today, huh?" 

Asahi gulped, and before neither of them knew what they were doing, Asahi started stripping. Well, he really just took his shirt off, but that caught Noya so off guard he thought he really was going to continue pealing off clothes, maybe because some part of him wanted him to.

Asahi stopped though, much to the disappointment of Noya, and held out his red bee sweater to him.

"H-here, you can uh-wear this so you don't have to get all-all-um-sticky and c-cold and..." His face was pink and looking in the other direction. Noya almost forgot to take the sweater from him, he was too busy ogling at Asahi. He was wearing a white tank top under the sweater, and Noya could finally see his arm muscles, which looked like they had been carved out of marble and belonged on a Greek statue. Okay, so he might have been exaggerating just a little, but Asahi really did have very toned arm muscles that were just as tan as the rest of him, all smooth and caramel brown. His tank top was just tight enough for him to make out the curve of muscle on his chest, and _oh my god he might have a six pack under there._ Noya gulped, and quickly took the sweater from his hands, muttering a thanks, and tried to take off his own shirt as quickly as possible. 

He didn't know Asahi was admiring him just as much as he was admiring Asahi. Or the way Asahi's breath hitched when he saw the little crow tattoo on his right shoulder blade when he turned. 

When Noya managed to face Asahi again, he was wearing his sweater and found that Asahi wasn't just taller than him, he had much broader shoulders and leaner and longer torso. Meaning he was swimming in the sweater. Literally. He could barely get his arms through the long sleeves.  _  
_

"Uh...that sweater is actually kind of big on me...so it might not fit you..."  
  
Noya raised an eyebrow at him, flopping his wool encased arms around.

"You think?"

Noya heard a snort. Then a giggle. Then a louder giggle. And then finally a laugh that was louder and cheerier than anything he had ever heard before. He would have relished in the sound until he realized Asahi was laughing  _at_ him.

"Hey! Shut up! I'm warning you!" But Asahi continued laughing, clutching his stomach.

"I-I'm sorry you just-just look-"  
  
"Ridiculous? Childish?"  
  
"Yes, yes, and-"   
  
"Stupid-" "Cute."  
  
Asahi stopped breathing for a second.

"I-I-I mean-"   
  
"I hope you know that laugh of yours is cuter than any sweater."

Both their faces were covered in splotches of red. Noya almost regretted his last statement, but he couldn't let Asahi think his statement was one-sided. He was telling the truth, anyway. 

"You two get a room already."   
  
Daichi was in the room now, being trailed by both Suga, who was smile seemed to be hiding something, and Tanaka who was sporting two big thumbs up. 

"I don't think any sort of PDA is allowed in this work environment, sorry," Suga said with Tanaka hollering behind him. Noya managed to quickly say,

"Oh wow I think the rain is letting up Asahi you should probably get back to work I'll walk you over let's go," before throwing him his coat and bolting out the door, umbrella already in hand and opened up outside. Asahi painstakingly mumbled a few sorry's to the others, only to then join Noya under the umbrella. Though Noya handed it back to Asahi a second later, he was already on his way down the opposite end on the street. 

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry for them, they just-those asses don't know  _anything_ -oh god I'm so so sorry." 

Asahi was doing his best to keep up with the fast paced Noya, holding the umbrella over him more than himself. 

"I-It's okay, really, but um, could you slow down a little?"   
  
Noya paused and found himself under an umbrella with de-sweatered man who was now pretty soaked. Noya was a mixed bag of apologies and embarrassment at the moment, and was just about to say something, when his eyes caught a perfect puddle on the side walk.

"Excuse me." He pushed a now confused Asahi to the side and jumped into the puddle, splashing water everywhere. Somehow, it made him feel better, and he continued hopping from puddle to puddle.

"What are you-"  
  
"Puddle jumping! What does it look like?"  
  
"What-what if someone sees you?"  
  
"Who cares!" He made a bigger splash in one puddle. He saw how Asahi was anxiously glanced from side to side, not sure what to do. Noya grabbed his arm and tried to pull him along.

"Just jump!"  
  
"But I-"  
  
"Asahi, just jump!"

"But-"  
  
"No buts!" Noya then took his hand and jumped again. Then Asahi gave his own little jump. Then a bigger one. And then he and Noya were laughing and splashing each other with dirty street water, but it was the most fun either of them had in a long time. 

"Such dorks." Tanaka huffed, watching the two jump around and push each other around, the umbrella completely forgotten on the ground. 

It was no surprise when they each walked into work the next day with the sniffles, but neither regretted it.


	10. Chapter 10

The sky was starting to turn the color of a dark purple bruise. Noya had been used to seeing this color outside the window of his apartment, not through the glass door of his workplace. Surprisingly, an influx of customers came in today; there were so many of them that everyone had to work overtime, extending the shops hours.

Everyone else had left about an hour earlier, gradually, like they always did, but as a penalty for coming to work sick, Daichi made Nishinoya lock up for the night. That made him the last person to leave for the day. Which meant he was all alone and it was going to stay that way. He'd probably get home, order take out, and watch Animal Planet like he usually did. He _could_ call Tanaka to see if he wanted to do something,  _anything,_ but he was probably just as tired as Noya was, so he really didn't want to bother.

With a grumble, Noya had just put the key in the front entrance's lock with a  _click_ and shoved it back in his pocket. He turned on his heel, a new sudden desire for excitement started filling him to the brim. With his newfound energy, he jogged down the sidewalk, trying to think of  _something_ to do. He was just about to cross the street, using an actual crosswalk for once, when he noticed someone on the opposite side of the street; on the crosswalk parallel to him. 

Asahi. 

What better someone to find excitement with was there?

No one, that's who.

Cheerfully, Noya jogged over to him, offering a big smile and wave and a " _Asahi!"_

He looked a bit startled in Noya's direction for a second, before he gave a little wave back.

"Hi, Noya."  
  
"Hey, Asahi! What're you up to? Got an exciting plans for the night? I bet you're gonna stay out until the sun rises! Am I right or am I right?" Noya said, half-joking. He was half-realing, too. Part of him hoped that Asahi had something to do so he could tag along. 

"Uh-no. You're not right, this time. Sorry."  
  
"No sick parties? Any wild adventures?  _Anything?"_

Asahi hummed for a second, putting his bearded chin between his thumb and forefinger. 

"I guess...I could use a trip to the supermarket, I am a little short on groceries."  
  
" _Hell yeah!_ Let's go!"  
  
All Noya needed was something to prompt him, even something as boring as a supermarket. Because then he could supply the fun.

"Someone seems chipper today." Asahi commented with a smile. Noya shrugged.

"I dunno, I guess after a long day of work work  _work,_ I just want to do something fun."  
  
"Grocery shopping is fun?"  _When it's with you, yes._

"I can make it fun! Do you doubt me and my abilities?"  
  
"Depends on the abilities at hand. At bringing fun into normal situation; sure. At raising pet fish; no."  
  
"You're so mean. You're a lot meaner than I thought. You're a meaner."  
  
"I thought I was a weenie?"  
  
"Correction:  _ween,_ and yes you are still such a weenie ween, but you're also a meaner. You're two for two!"  
  
"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not."  
  
"It's an endearing insult."  
  
"Oh."  
  
Noya was snickering way too loudly behind his hand, though his appendage didn't muffle the sound at all. Asahi humphed, and tried his best not to let his gaze linger on the boy who was surprisingly cute when he laughed. 

They rode out the next few minutes to the grocery store in silence, a comfortable one, though. Well, as much silence as silence was with a laughing Noya. When Asahi glanced back at him for too long, he started to laugh, which in turn made Noya laugh  _more,_ and then that made Asahi laugh _even_   _more,_ and eventually the two went in a huge circle of laugh, look, laugh more _,_ before having to calm themselves down. They were in public, after all. And at a grocery store.

Asahi picked out the necessities for himself: milk, eggs, salad, celery, paper towels, bread, apples, and carrots. He promised himself he would try and eat better this year. That plan hit a road block when he noticed the kinds of sugary cereals Noya was dumping in his cart. 

Nishinoya was flying all over the place. He picked up on Asahi's health kick and made the decision to break him into at least a little self-indulgent food.

"Oh come on, stop it Mister Weenie Ween Healthy Meaner, it's ice cream. It's not going to kill you!"

"I don't know..."   
  
Noya dumped the ice cream in the cart for him. He got his favorite chocolate ice cream and lime flavored popsicles. He also might have thrown in a box of soda flavored ones too. He also might have thrown those in so he could have an excuse to visit Asahi if he ran out of his own popsicles. Or if he pretended to run out. 

He managed to sway Asahi into getting a couple of frozen pizzas and a few bags of chips, but he let the weenie keep his healthy route after that. He needed to ease Asahi into the ways of junk food.

Once they were all checked out and ready to go, he took all the grocery bags (there were four) upon himself. Asahi tried to make a grab for at least  _one_ but Noya wouldn't let him have at it.

"Nuh uh, I'm carrying all these! I'm not letting you help, Asahi! I got this!"

For once he actually had it, the bags weren't too heavy. He wasn't even struggling! But Asahi kept fretting and sweating and worrying over him all the way to his apartment. 

Noya did let Asahi help him put everything away, though, for two reasons: he didn't know where everything was supposed to go and he couldn't reach the high shelves. For some reason, Asahi was even more frantic in his fretting when Noya was around the kitchen, for whatever reason. 

Noya then convinced him to order a pizza. 

"B-but we just bought-"

"Hush. You don't know real joy until you've ordered pizza from Nekoma's. No other pizza can compare, promise!"  
  
So Noya went over to the wall phone (he seriously had a  _wall phone_ ) and dialed up the number, leaving Asahi to wait and twiddle his thumbs on the couch. When Noya pranced back over to him, Asahi looked even more frazzled. Noya threw him a concerned look and Asahi pulled back, flinching.

"S-sorry, I-I just-just didn't expect to have company over today-and-and-the place is a wreck and I-I-I-"  
  
"Calm down, you're place is so much cleaner than mine, I don't mind! Really, it's fine." His words seemed to help a little, but not enough. Noya let out an estranged breath and patted Asahi's cheek lightly.

"It's okay, you weenie. I can, you know, _go_ if it's stressing you out. I don't want to be a burden."  
  
"N-no I'd-you can stay. Really."  
  
"You sure?"  
  
He didn't look sure.

"Y-yes."

Noya almost left on his own at that, seeing the pain it was taking for him to mumble that out. 

"Please." He squeaked, it sounded like a beg.

Noya recognized it all too well. It was a  _please_ that didn't just mean please, it meant  _I don't want to be alone._ All Noya wanted to do was take Asahi's head in his hands and kiss him and kiss him and  _kiss him_ until he made everything better. The only thing that stopped him from doing just that was the doorbell. He cursed that fact Nekoma's delivered so fast.

"I'll get it."  
  
And Noya did get it, he padded over to the door with his wallet.

Ugh. He just had to get that creepy, sly delivery guy with bed head, didn't he?  
  
"Oho? If I'm not mistaken, this isn't your house, is it Noya?"  
  
Kuroo looked down at him with a grin that shook him to his bones.  
  
"No, it's not."  
  
"Then why are you here, at this hour?"  
  
"Give me the damn pizza."  
  
"Not before you answer me."  
  
Kuroo held the pizza over his head, little Noya jumping up to reach it.

"Give it, Kuroo!"   
  
His fruitless efforts made the taller snicker. His snickering stopped when he caught sight of a figure looming over the both of them at the door. Kuroo couldn't see his expression, but he figured it wasn't too happy all the same.

"Easy big guy, I surrender the pizza over to the little brat."  
  
"Hey! I'm not little, you're little!" 

The pizza and money was handed over like they were handling a hostage situation. Kuroo waved them off, saying, "Goodnight, don't stay up  _too_ late, kiddos~" 

Noya turned back around to Asahi, pizza in hand, face red.

"Kuroo's a dick."  
  
"I can tell."  
  
To try and get over it, Noya made the two a nest on the floor, piling pillow after pillow and blanket after blanket before being happy with his handiwork. 

"Come. Sit."  
  
Asahi obeyed. Noya flipped the pizza box open, taking in the smell of warm cheese, before shoving two pieces in his mouth at once. He then coughed some of his food back up, remembering he was in Asahi's presence, and opted just for one piece. He wanted to be polite. Asahi took one piece himself and picked up the remote control.

"Animal Planet or Masterpiece Classics?"  
  
"Animal Planet!"  
  
And so the two ate pizza, joked, laughed, cried (Noya at one point during  _Meerkat Manor_ ), and somewhere along the way they fell asleep. Which sucked because they both had work in the morning. It didn't suck that Noya had a big heater to cling to in the night. That really didn't suck one bit.

Nishinoya awoke to sunlight hitting his eyes. He should've closed the blinds last night. He tiredly lifted his head up to survey his surroundings. The nest in which he was so proud of making was thrown apart; pillows here and there and everywhere. Asahi was one his backside, one arm slung out to the side, the other on his chest. Noya was sprawled out on top of him. His world slowed down and he could feel Asahi's heart beating rapidly in his chest, he could almost hear it. Then the world sped up when Noya started to thrashed away, but caught himself and stopped before he woke Asahi up. Carefully, he backed away, tip toeing to the bathroom. He really needed to pee and make sure his hair was okay.

He looked in the mirror and blessed himself for using so much gel the day before, his hair was just as perfect as it was earlier. He splashed water on his face and out of curiosity, checked his medicine cabinet. Toothbrush, toothpaste; not much out of the ordinary. Except for an orange pill bottle. It was empty, and Noya made himself leave it alone. It was probably just some special allergy medicine or something. He felt like looking at that was too much an invasion of privacy.

Tip toeing again, this time to the kitchen, he got himself a glass of water, and even put a glass out for Asahi. Noya tried to reach up to the higher shelves on the cabinets, when he could barely get to the lower one's, and decided to just snoop around the lower half of the kitchen. He was moving a decorative fruit bowl out of the way to see what treasures lurked behind it, when something caught his eye. Out on the counter, barely obscured by the fruit bowl, were two orange pill bottles, and a pink sticky note that read  _Remember to take your meds_ in cursive. 

This time, he picked one of the bottles and tried to read the tiny script on it. He couldn't make out what it was, all he knew was that it wasn't allergy medicine. He dropped the bottle while turning it around in his hands.

"Shit." He whispered, and made a move to turn around and get it off the floor when Asahi walked into the kitchen. He was so pale it looked like he'd seen a ghost. Both stood there, Asahi standing with his back straight and Noya bent half way down to the floor.

"Shit." Noya said it louder this time, and Asahi gripped his hands to fists at his side.

"I-I-I-I-"  
  
"Asahi, I'm sorry."  
  
He looked like he was going to cry. Noya's throat tightened.

"Asahi..." Noya breathed, going down all the way and picking up the bottle, slowly walking over to him.

"Asahi, what are these for?" He held the bottle up.

"Asahi, please,  _please_ , tell me what these are for?"  
  
"T-t-those?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"T-those are...I-I have a h-h-heart condition." 

He gulped.

"T-t-t-the other one is f-for-"

He whimpered, voice dropping lower than a whisper.

"A-anxiety."  
  
Asahi was crying now. His hands went immediately to his eyes, his palms on his eyes and his fingers curled so tight they hurt. 

He knew Noya would leave now, so many people did, so many people called him  _crazy_ or said he was  _making the whole thing up._ He was sure Noya would say something similar, he just  _knew_ he would.

He didn't.

Instead Noya dropped the pill bottle again and threw his arms around Asahi. 

"It's okay."  
  
His voice was so quiet it didn't sound like it was his.

"It's okay."  
  
He repeated those two words over and over, and at some point he started crying too.

They stayed like that for a while; whimpering and crying and sobbing into each other.

 _His heart might not be gold,_ is what Noya thought.

_It's glass._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohhh my gosh, all of the nice things people have been commenting have really made my day! I'm sorry I can't reply to you directly, I'm afraid I'm too shy to do that. But please know that you've all really lifted my spirits and I appreciate it so so so much and just-wow!
> 
> I've always felt a connection between me and Asahi, considering his anxieties. I've had the same concerns he had and I thought he might suffer from an anxiety disorder, as I do. It's really been a comfort to me, so that's kind of why I portrayed him such.
> 
> I hope you all have a lovely day!


	11. Chapter 11

Nishinoya was tired, he had a headache, his hair was stiff as stone, his eyes were still red and puffy, and he was pretty sure he was dying. Which really didn't explain why he was smiling so much. At one point during the day Tanaka whispered all too loudly to Yamaguchi, "What's wrong with him? He looks so hung over right now." Yanaguchi replied with a shrug, leaving Tanaka to his own devices. 

"Oi, Noya!" He startled Noya to the point where he jumped three feet in the air.

"Yeah?"  
  
"What where you even  _up_ to last night? You look like hell, bro."  
  
"Oh you know...this and that."  
  
"This and that?"  
  
"This and that and Animal Planet."  
  
"This and that and Animal Planet _with a certain someone,_ you mean?" Tanaka started waggling his eyebrows something fierce.  
  
"No, nope, naw! It was  _not_ like that!" 

"So you  _were_ with him!"  
  
"You've finally made a move on the thug?" Yamaguchi questioned.

"Seems like he has." Daichi answered.

" _No!_ I swear it was just-no! There was absolutely nothing!"  _Except the fact we clung together and cried for what seemed like forever._

"Is that why you were late today?" Daichi was starting to ask more and more questions.

" _N-"_  
  
"If it is, I'll let you off the hook for being late again."  
  
Nishinoya fumed. You could practically see the steam coming out of his ears. He resumed sweeping the invisible dirt on the floor, ignoring the laughs of his peers. He was still trying replaying what had happened this morning in his head.

\---------------------

After trying to let Asahi go for the third time, Noya didn't go two minutes without wrapping his arms around him again. He needed to say something other than  _it's okay,_ he needed to get both Asahi and himself cleaned up for work, he _needed_ to do a lot of things, but all he  _could_ do was hold Asahi close; like he was trying to hold him together.  _  
_

Finally, after what seemed like eons, he stopped gripping Asahi's sweater tightly, like he was going to drift away, Noya managed to step back a little and take a good look at him. Asahi's hair was loose and strands of it were stuck to his flesh with sweat and salty tears, his face was red, and he still looked like he was going to cry. Noya was careful, patting his arms and wiping away the tears under his eyes with the pad of his thumb carefully, gently. Asahi was a big, porcelain doll Noya couldn't afford to break.

"Do you have any Ziplock bags?"  
  
Asahi nodded, moving slowly to one of the higher shelves and handing him a box of cheap, knock off Ziplock baggies. Noya rummaged around the kitchen for a while, until he found a permanent marker, Asahi watching, not moving a muscle. 

When Noya started to count out the pills in each bottle, Asahi flipped.

"W-w-what are you doing?" His voice almost a whisper. Noya turned to him with a zipped up plastic bag in each hand. In his right was one labeled  _Anxiety Meds_ and in the other was  _Heart Meds._ _  
_

"I'm just taking a few of these to keep on myself. If that's okay? I want to make sure you're alright, so if you're ever out in public and you need your meds, I got you covered." There were two little pills in each bag, Asahi had more than enough for the next month still in the bottles.

"Okay." He sounded almost relieved.

"We should get ready for work."  
  
Asahi made a little grunting noise.

"I'll wait for you to get ready, then I'll walk you to work. How does that sound?"  
  
Asahi now made a surprised whimpering noise.

"B-but you'll b-be-"  
  
"Asahi, go get ready. I'll wait for you. It's fine."  
  
"Y-you don't h-have-"  
  
" _I want to."_  

That seemed to trigger Asahi into get-ready-mode. He skittered off to prepare himself for the long day ahead. Noya sighed and ran his hand over the little pills that were now in his possession. He was determined to protect the giant with the heart made of glass.

\----------------------

Noya dropped his broom and felt through the fabric of his pants pockets to find the pills, to make sure he had them. He was so happy he didn't write Asahi's name on the bags. If he had and someone else found them, someone would  _know_ about Asahi's condition, which he was pretty sure Asahi didn't want happening. Now if someone found them, he could pass them off as his own or find an excuse for having them.

He shifted the danger from Asahi to himself. And he was happy he did. He was also happy Asahi seemed to let him in, let him  _help._ Noya was slowly scaling his glass walls and was going to stop anyone from cracking or bringing them down. He was going to protect Asahi from the inside out.

And it seemed like, with a little persuasion, Asahi was going to let him.

That's why he was smiling. 

"Stop thinking about your boyfriend and get back to work."   
  
He hit Tanaka upside the head.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, sorry. I just felt like I needed to get something else out, then brainstorm on what's to come. I'm really happy so many of you like this!
> 
> Also with Asahi's heart condition, I tried to hint at the idea a little. Him grabbing his chest in panic, saying he thought he had a heart attack in Noya's presence, his heart beating rapidly when he was asleep, ect. I just didn't want anyone to think that was revealed out of no where and forgot to mention it last time. Oops for that.
> 
> I'm happy a lot of people can relate to this, too! I was going for that a little actually, and all of you are so nice and funny and dear lord you've all made me a much happier person!


	12. Chapter 12

"I-is Noy-um-Nishinoya Y-yuu here?"  
  
Asahi barely had his head poking through the door of the no-named tattoo parlor, hands clasped behind his back, and a fearful expression written on his face. He wanted to talk to Noya. He  _needed_ to talk to Noya. Asahi just figured he could snatch him up while he was on his break or something, just too see if he could talk to him for _one measly minute_.

For about two hours earlier he debated the whole thing, every single one of nerves standing on end, and he hadn't even made up his mind after _two whole hours_. Those hours were filled with him inner-monologuing to himself with worries and concerns and overall anxious thoughts.

_What if Noya's in the middle of something? He could be working on something important and if I came barreling in that would ruin everything. It wouldn't just affect him either. It would involve every other employee and all the customers they might have and oh no what if I make those customers leave? What if I scare them off? That would hurt business and hurt Noya and everyone else. The shop might have to close down because I scared away their last customers and they couldn't pay the bills on time and that would mean so many people would be out of a job, including Noya. I could make every bad thing in the world happen to all those good people, oh god what am I thinking of doing?_

In the end, he decided to think like Noya. What would he do in this situation? Nishinoya would march right in and demand a word with him, not taking no for an answer. Asahi could never do that. But maybe he could muster up at least a little confidence, and maybe politely ask for Noya? But what would he say to him after that? He hadn't thought that far ahead. He just wanted to say something,  _anything_ , to him. Maybe an apology? Or would a thank you be better? Both. He could go with both. Politely ask for him, apologize, and thank him. Asahi could do that, right? 

He just needed to make a quick stop first.

Asahi blessed Kiyoko for offering to cover his shift, so he'd have one less thing to worry about. Actually, he didn't because now he was thinking things like  _oh no what if she starts hating me because I keep accidentally making her do things for me at work, what if she begins to resent me and think badly of me_ and  _what if something happens while I'm gone, what if I could have done something to prevent that other something but because I didn't because I was so selfish._

He was really chewing himself up.

To make things worse, Noya wasn't even there when he had come to see him.

"Who's askin' for him?" replied a man with a shaved head and a disgustingly terrifying facial expression.

"U-uh A-a-azumane A-ashi, I um, I work across th-"  
  
"You're the beefcake Noya's always going on about!" he exclaimed, jumping back wildly. For some reason, Suga was there, watching the new events unfold before him. He sat next to Daichi who was in turn, standing next to Yamaguchi.

"You know, he's not as thuggish as I thought. He seems a lot more shy." Yamaguchi whispered to Daichi. He nodded his head in agreement. 

Tanaka was circling Asahi, like a vulture evaluating it's prey. 

"Why do you have flowers, big guy?"   
  
"Oh, I just sold those to him. I wanted to know who he was going to give them to, and I figured most of the action would go down over here." So that's why Suga was there.

"Wait, are you trying to say this guy is going to give those to-oh man, you gotta'nother thing coming!" Tanaka grabbed a fistful of his sweater, a dark puce color, and tried to bring Asahi's eyes down to his level. He wasn't successful, and allowed himself to strike fear into the man by looking up at him instead of down at him. It was working. 

"Look, I don't like you, but I like Noya. He's my bestest bud, 'kay? And I don't want you breaking his heart or messing him up, we clear?"  
  
"C-c-crystal."  
  
"Be careful with him, don't you  _dare_ hurt him or I'm gonna have to whoop you into next Tuesday, capisce?"   
  
Asahi nodded his head.

"I didn't quite catch that,  _capisce?"_  
  
"Y-yes!"  
  
"Man, we haven't had a donut run in, like,  _ages._ But why did I have to go get them when you could've gotten-" Nishinoya walked through door, a large box of donuts in hand, just in time to, as Suga put it, 'see the action go down'. 

He nearly dropped the donuts.

"Oh my god-Tanaka-holy  _fuck." You are not helping my love life._

Noya launched himself at Tanaka, carefully setting the donuts down first, of course. Tanaka fell face first onto the floor, Noya sitting in the small of his back and hitting him repeatedly.

"What did you tell him?  _What did you fucking tell him!_ I swear if you told him about the time I got my head stuck the-" 

"N-noya he didn't say a-a-anything like that!" Nishinoya shot Asahi a skeptical look, narrowing his eyes, and only then caught the look of absolute terror in Asahi's eyes.

" _You threatened him? You fucking threatened him!_ I cannot believe you-why would you fucking threaten him! Jesus, I can't believe-" Noya groaned, hiding his face in his hands.  
  
"You really are  _not_ helping my goddamned love life." He hoped his hands muffled the sound enough that no one could hear that. As his hoping was in vain, Asahi turned scarlet.

"Okay just-no. I'll deal with  _you,"_ cue pointed stare at Tanaka, "later. Asahi I'm taking you out of here, c'mon."  _Let's go before something worse happens._

Noya grabbed his hand and pulled a dazed Asahi outside with him. Nishinoya even managed to walk round the block to make sure nobody would follow them. Once he figured they were far away enough from everyone, he let himself actually breathe. 

"I am so  _so_ fucking sorry. Tanaka's a good guy, mostly, he's just a lot to handle. I can't believe he would a-fucking-ssault you!"  
  
"I-it's fine-"  
  
"Are you hurt? Bruised? He better not have-"  
  
"Noya-"  
  
"I leave for ten fucking ass minutes and he  _jumps_ you-"  
  
"Noya!"  
  
The loudness of Asahi's voice startled him out of his rage.

"Okay, I'm cool. Totally a cucumber here."  
  
"Good. Um, actually, I er-" Asahi lifted the wilted bouquet of geraniums up to him. 

"...Why do you have flowers?"  
  
"I got them as an-a um-an apology. And a thank you?"   
  
"Woah woah, back the fuck up. I leave you alone for a couple of hours only to have my friend try and pummel you, and  _you're_ the one getting  _me_ flowers?"  
  
"Yes?"

"That's really...nice of you, actually." Noya's face was burning and he hesitantly reached out to the bouquet.

"I-I just felt bad, for putting you through all-all  _that_ and I thought this might be okay, but then I realized again that I didn't know you had allergies and so I asked S-suga and he-"  
  
"Asahi?"  
  
"Y-yes?"  
  
"Shut up."  
  
"O-o-okay."  
  
"Thanks. This is really...really nice of you." And sweet and cute and  _oh god now he really wanted to kiss him._ _  
_

"It's the least I c-could do."  
  
"No, the least you could do was nothing. This is something _and_ it's nice and I appreciate it."  
  
They stood there, looking at the bird poop on the side walk and the buildings around them and the dog poop on the ground; basically everywhere but each other. Noya took a deep breath and took a step closer to Asahi after a long minute.

"Actually, scratch that. I absolutely  _love_ it. Thanks."  
  
Asahi's breath hitched.

"Y-you're welcome..."  
  
Nishinoya grabbed his sleeve and pulled him along.

"Come on, let's get you back to work and let's get be back to shoving my fist in Tanaka's face."  
  
Asahi couldn't help but give a little chuckle, silently hoping he wouldn't hurt Tanaka too badly. 

The two parted ways once again, both still blushing like mad. 

Even after Noya gave Tanaka a few blows to the gut, he was still blushing. 

For the rest of the day that red tinted his cheeks and he kept trying to cover it up by burying his face in his newly acquired flowers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, guys, this fic is almost at one-thousand hits! By the time a lot of you read this, it might already be past that! Oh my god I never thought that my fic would get barely one-hundred, but this is just-holy cow-thank you all so much!


	13. Chapter 13

"No way! You're such a liar!" Noya almost snorted out his soda at the  _thought_  of that.

It was a cloudy, grey day, and both he and Asahi were sitting in front of the bookstore, having a nice chat and lunch together, again. This nice chat however, took a very unexpected turn, when Asahi mentioned something that couldn't possibly be true.

"I'm not lying! I really did have a piercing...back in high school, anyway."  
  
"Oh yeah? Where?"

Asahi blushed, big shocker, and opened his mouth just enough to point inside and hopefully get the message across. It took Noya a second of starting at him before he got it.

" _You had a tongue stud?"_

Asahi nodded, scratching the back of his neck and looking down.

_That is so hot._

"That's so cool!"  _And hot._ _  
_

"What happened to it?"  _Please tell me you still have the tongue stud, please._

"I uh...I took it out and let it heal, after a while. I really only had it to try and embrace the whole 'wild' look I thought I had." 

"Oh...well, you know Mister Wild Side, if you ever want it back, I can do the job for you!"  
  
Asahi's face had lit up in four different shades of red.

"I'll keep that in mind."  
  
"Cool! Then we could match!" Noya excitedly stuck out his own tongue to show off the little metal ball in the middle of it.

"I didn't know you had one..."  
  
"Now you do! I've got this, a lip ring, two bars on an eyebrow, three in my upper right ear and two in the lower, then two in my upper left ear and three lower, and my personal favorite, the septum piercing. I've got enough metal in my face to set off seven different metal detectors in an airport." He casually left out the fact both his nipples were pierced.  
  
"I think you look good with them, and cool too. You're pulling off the 'wild' look better than I ever could."  
  
"That's not true! I have the listens-to-punk-bands-and-likes-anarchy-look and you've got the I-deal-drugs-behind-that-dumpster-and-look-like-a-forty-year-old-man-look going for ya. There's all sorts of levels for these things!"  
  
"I guess you're right..." Asahi looked down at his lap, though Nishinoya's words had made sense to him, they really didn't help. Noya sighed, and punched him in the shoulder to bring Asahi's gaze back up.

"It's not that fun being all tatted and pierced up. People think you're going to burn down buildings or eat their kids or something. Don't even get me started on family stuff, either. It's always  _Why don't you get a real job_ or  _You need to take that metal out of your head and move on with your life, Yuu_ or something like that. And I mean I can, and I might eventually, but I', still figuring myself out, you know?"  
  
"Yeah...I know what you mean." Hesitantly, Asahi put an arm on Noya's shoulder when he saw how distressed the younger seemed to be. Noya leaned into his touch, just a little bit, and let out a breath. 

"You know, I'm pretty happy I can talk to you. About stuff. I mean, stuff like this most people over at Daichi's get, but you know, there are other things that I just-okay don't hit more for saying this-I think there are somethings that you can just...get. Other stuff. Other, sometimes really important stuff, that you get. Is that weird? That's weird. Forget I said-"  
  
"L-likewise."  
  
Noya had leaned into Asah's had so much he moved from his position of just sitting next to him, to putting his head on Asahi's shoulder.

"I c-can't believe-or no I-I just-I'm happy you're here, Noya."  
  
"Likewise."  
  
Noya was beaming up at him, a toothy grin brighter than the sun blocking out everything else is Asahi's mind. He smiled back, too. 

And then the rain came down. Looks like that cloudy sky was holding a lot of water and the sky god had decided to let it rip on the most perfect of moments. Oh well.

The two stood up, leaving their lunches behind to clamber frantically up the steps, only to find the door of the bookstore locked.

"Kiyoko! Are you in there? You s-should be there!"  
  
Alas, the door did not open up, and the rain started pelting down harder.

"Asahi, come on! Let's try and get to Daichi's!"   
  
They ran across the street, with Asahi protesting about the dangers of jaywalking, only to find the shop was locked up. People were inside, though, and even with Noya's banging, no one seemed to notice. In the span of ten minutes, the rain turned in  _freezing_   _rain_ , sticking to everything and everyone, including Nishinoya and Asahi. Karasuno really does have some odd weather, doesn't it? At least the forecast this time warned viewers about a thirty percent chance of rain. That's something, right? Not to Noya, as his hair was getting soaked and he really didn't want Asahi to seem him ten centimeters shorter (that's almost a whopping four inches, by the way). 

They settled for staying under the awning of the flower shop, because guess what?  _Suga's Sunflowers_ was closed. Noya could've swore he saw Suga next door at Daichi's, though.

"This sucks." Noya hung his head and became deflated when he found his hair to be wet enough to start cascading against his forehead.

"I-it's not t-that bad, the storm should p-p-pass."  
  
Noya looked up, surprised to see Asahi was stuttering from the cold, not his own embarrassment. That was really odd since he was wearing a-Noya's eyes widened. 

"Asahi, why aren't you wearing a sweater?"  
  
"That l-last one's in the wash."  
  
"Now that is such a lie, you always wear sweaters and on the one day you need one, you wear a normal shirt?" On one hand Noya was only complaining a little, though. With Asahi's white V-neck drenched, he could see the outline of his abs and  _damn he did have a six pack._  On the other hand Noya was so afraid of him getting sick and being cold and sad in the rain, so he ended up wrapping his arms around Asahi's torso and squeezing him close.

"W-what are-"  
  
"You're cold, right? I'm cold, too, so now we spread body heat to keep each other warm." 

Tentatively, Asahi lowered his own arms around Noya, leaning over him a bit to bring his arms down against his back.

"Sorry about my hair, it kind of flattens down in the rain. Like a lot." Noya said just to keep an awkward silence from happening between them.

"Don't worry about that." Asahi gently lifted his head up to-yep, Noya's hair was pretty flat, not all spikey like it had been before-and then rested his chin on top of his flattened hair. Asahi's own hair had fallen out of it's usal bun, now flying everywhere and sticking to his face. 

Noya took in a deep breath and smelled the scent of fresh flowers that the rain had brought out and laundry detergent that was the same as the bee sweater Noya had that he had forgotten to give back. Not like he kept it specifically so he could sometimes sleep with it when he got lonely, ha ha. Ha. But the smell was closer, more direct, and Noya was completely smothered in it.

"H-hey, Asahi? You remember how we were talking about...stuff? Like, being able to talk to each other about stuff?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
Well, this was as good a time as any.

"Yeah, well, uh, we've been close for a while now, right?"  
  
"Right..."  
  
"And you could say we really are friends now?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"So uh-here's the thing. I mean-I like you. Like, a lot. 'Cause you know you're pretty, well actually you are  _pretty_ pretty, but you're also nice and sweet and caring and you have amazing eyes and you rescue kittens and you're basically a fucking Adonis with those abs and you're just so-so-yeah. I uh, yeah. I think I like you. Like,  _like_ like you."   
  
There was so much heat between the two, neither had to worry about warmth in this rain. Both their faces were aflame, someone needed to call the fire department.

"I...I like you too."   
  
"Do you like me or do you  _like_ like me?"  
  
"P-please don't make me say  _like like,_ but, um, yes. I do. Very much."  
  
"Really?"  
  
Asahi let out an  _mmm hmm_ sound into the crown of his head. While he was too busy trying to drown out his embarrassment, Noya stood up on the tips of his toes to lean up and give Asahi a peck on the lips. 

Asahi really was on fire now, the firemen really needed to get here soon. He flinched, and Noya backed down.

"Was that okay? If it wasn't okay then-"  
  
"No, no, no it was um, very okay I just wasn't-prepared."  
  
Noya gave a cheeky grin.

"Well then come down here so I can kiss you properly, you weenie."  
  
Asahi happily obliged. 

When they pulled away, all wet smiles and slightly saliva drenched mouths, Noya couldn't help but feel proud of the little indent on Asahi's lower lip his piecing left.

\-------------------------

"Wow, Daich, you've finally won one of our bets," Suga sighed, rubbing the side of his face,"I thought they'd take more than a month for sure!" 

Everyone, including Kageyama, had their faces pressed against the glass of the tattoo parlor, watching Noya and Asahi kiss in the rain.

"Did you guys really set this up?" Kageyama asked, turning away from the window and going back to his desk.

"Yes, but I didn't think it would work!" Suga cried, curling up in defeat.

Daichi had on the biggest, smuggest smile.

"I guess that means our next date's on you?"  
  
Suga could hear his wallet cry.

Tanaka just rolled his eyes.

"Bye the way, Yamaguchi, when will you and Tsukishima get together? Do you have any specific idea on when or?"  
  
"Oh, Tsukki and I have been dating for a while now, actually."  
  
"How long!"  
  
"Mmm, about six months now."  
  
"Damn, that means our bet's off, what a pain. I really needed the thirty bucks."  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand this story comes to a close! I would like to thank everyone who's read it so far and thank you for all the nice things you've said! 
> 
> I felt like I should end this here, if I did too much more I felt like I was stalling the story progression. On a more selfish note, I only got a chance to write this since I've been off school a week, due to weather, and needed to wrap this up before it got too out of control and before school started again for me.
> 
> I have another asanoya idea in me, maybe a few more actually, and if I have the chance I would love to continue to improve my writing as well as create more fic for these beautiful children.
> 
> Now then, I hope you all have a good day today!


End file.
